Junts fined €380,000 for exceeding the electoral spending limit in the municipal elections

BarcelonaThe first warning came in April, And finally, the sanction has arrived: the Court of Auditors has imposed two fines on Junts for violating electoral legislation regarding campaigns in the 2023 municipal elections. After auditing the electoral accounts of Compromiso Municipal, the Junts party's municipalist brand, the oversight body determined that it exceeded the spending limits established by law. The total sum that Carles Puigdemont's party must pay amounts to €383,317.96.

Which rule has Junts broken? According to Article 193.2 of the LOREG (Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime), candidates running in municipal elections must adhere to campaign spending limits, which are determined by the population of the constituencies where they are running and the proportion of municipalities they represent in each province. Exceeding these limits by more than 10% constitutes a "very serious" violation of electoral law and carries fines. Applying these limits, Junts could not exceed €1.4 million, but spent 22.91% more (approximately €314,000 more). Therefore, the Court of Auditors has concluded that Junts must face an initial fine of €377,591.68, as confirmed by ARA.

The second fine levied against Carles Puigdemont's party is more substantial, amounting to €5,726.28. The Court of Auditors imposed it for allocating more than 20% of its budget to outdoor advertising, also violating the law. In both cases, Junts has accepted the penalty, which entitles it to a reduction, but also means waiving its right to pursue any legal action against the ruling. When contacted by this newspaper, the party declined to comment on the proceedings.

These sanctions were imposed at a plenary session of the Court of Auditors held in July, where breaches were also detected in three other formations, one of them the Catalan Babord, brand of the alternative left in Vilassar de Mar, which received a fine of 51 euros.

New sanctions

In a new round of sanctions made public this Tuesday, the Court of Auditors has imposed fines on fourteen more municipal political parties for similar infractions. Among them is Aliança Catalana, which has been fined €431.54 for spending 10% more than the legal limit for its municipal campaign. Now, Decidim Ripollet will also have to pay €1,007.65 for the same reason.

These amounts are far lower than those imposed on Junts, the party that has had to pay the largest fine in the entire audit of the 2023 municipal election accounts carried out by the Court of Auditors so far. Next in the ranking is EH Bildu, which was sanctioned with two fines totaling €245,392.82 in November 2024, in the first round of audits.