This is What’s Trending Today…
People on social media are demanding that a second European leader resign this week.
They are talking about British Prime Minister David Cameron, after his father was named in the newly-released “Panama Papers.”
With more than 125,000 tweets, the hashtag #resigncameron trended worldwide on Twitter Thursday and Friday.
Cameron’s father, Ian, was a stockbroker who died just after his son became prime minister.
Ian Cameron was among the long list of people identified in the Panama Papers. Their names were among the 11 million documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.
The documents provide details about over 200,000 offshore bank accounts. The papers show how rich people, public officials and their families hid their investments and avoided paying taxes.
David Cameron said on Thursday that he profited from an offshore fund set up by his father. He denied any wrongdoing, however.
"I want to be as clear as I can about the past, about the present, about the future because, frankly, I don't have anything to hide," Cameron told Britain’s ITV.
#resigncameron has been trending for over 24 hours now... surely there'll be a crisis of democratic legitimacy any minute...
— j̷̦̗͊̂̀̓o̶̭̐̈̑ͅǫ̸̢̱̽̄̎͘͝ḻ̴̝̋͛̕͝š̴͓̀͆d̴̘͇̜̀̐̆̈ (@joolsd) April 8, 2016
The prime minister said his family owned shares in Blairmore Holdings, a Bahamas-based company. The shares were worth about $42,000. He said he sold them in 2010, just months before becoming Britain’s leader.
David Cameron also told ITV that he paid all the "normal" income taxes on the profits from the sale.
But some people are not happy with his explanation.
Many on social media demanded that Cameron step down as prime minister. They say he hid wealth to avoid paying British taxes.
The Panama Papers already forced Iceland’s Prime Minister, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, to resign from office.
The documents showed that his wife owns a company in the British Virgin Islands that has $4 million in claims against Iceland’s collapsed banks.
On Monday of this week, thousands of protesters gathered outside Iceland’s Parliament to call for his resignation.
Gunnlaugsson resigned the next day.
And that’s What’s Trending Today.
I'm Dan Friedell.
Ashley Thompson adapted this story for VOA Learning English from VOA News reports. George Grow was the editor.
Words in This Story
stockbroker - n. an individual whose job is to buy and sell shares of stock for other people
offshore - adv. overseas; outside the country
fund - n. investments that are used for a special purpose
income - adj. money that is earned from work, investments and or businesses
