On 16 October, Mike Beke (Blomeyer & Sanz) gave a lecture to students of the Saint Louis University (Madrid Campus) titled: ‘Misplaced trust: political corruption in Europe’. The lecture introduced the students to concepts and debates on corruption by using findings coming from the first EU Anti-corruption Report and the Eurobarometer Special Survey on Corruption. Mike also reflected on recent developments in Spain with regard to anti-corruption. He highlighted that past and current corruption scandals in the country result in very low levels of public trust, lack of willingness among political parties to collaborate, and the rise of new political movements aiming to reshape Spain’s political landscape. Nonetheless, several of Spain’s public institutions and public officials (police, tax inspectors, public attorneys and judges) steadily and effectively continue to fight corruption resulting in more investigations, prosecutions and sanctions.