Vox and Alvise's serious funding problems

Barcelona / MadridThe Spanish far-right is in the spotlight of investigations and sanctions for irregular financing. Both Vox and Alvise Pérez's Se ha Acabado la Fiesta (SALF) are accumulating problems in this area with fines imposed and open investigations. The Court of Auditors already hit Vox hard last year with two fines totaling €233,000, and again this year, with €862,000. Even the PSOE filed a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, which opened an investigation into the party for irregular financing stemming from alleged anonymous donations. According to ARA, the Public Prosecutor's Office will decide in the coming days whether to file a complaint against Vox or close the investigation. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is investigating Pérez for a €100,000 cash donation from Álvaro Portillo, a cryptocurrency entrepreneur and alleged mass fraudster.

The reason for the first warning At Vox, it was the use of targeted donations from non-members, in this case to use them for legal actions – for complaints like the one they filed against former President Quim Torra and to raise funds to help pay the bail of a man facing two years in prison for the death of a thief he beat. But The latest sanction from the supervisory body was again for a "very serious infraction" for having received irregular donations, as they were not identified in the 2018, 2019, and 2020 financial years. In three financial years, Vox received €330,000 in ATMs as "promotional activities," without being able to verify whether they came from the sale of merchandise or donations. Anti-corruption sources assure that this decision by the Court of Auditors "clearly affects [the investigation]," given that the facts are the same.

The fine, which was announced on April 30, was approved with the dissenting votes of two councilors proposed by the PP, José Manuel Otero and Javier Morillas. Vox trusts that the Supreme Court will overturn it—the appeal has been admitted for processing—just as it also appealed last year's sanctions. Sources from Vox's legal team assure ARA that the party "has always complied with the law and has been scrupulous in its financial management," with audited accounts even in order, according to their criteria. Thus, they emphasize that Spanish President Pedro Sánchez, "with the help of the PP, has attacked the Court of Auditors with the aim of obtaining fines against Vox." The graphic way they denounce this political "persecution" is that the fines are for selling armbands with the Spanish flag that fill Vox's coffers.

In any case, the financing problems of Santiago Abascal's far-right also go further: the Prosecutor's Office is investigating the controversial loan from a Hungarian bank close to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán –pro-Russian and from the same European group as Vox–, which critical sources of the party denounce as proof that "Putin is a bad idea", an argument also repeated by one of the media totems of the right, Federico Jiménez Losantos. However, sources from Vox report that they requested this loan "because in Spain they have not obtained it" due to an alleged veto from financial institutions and that it has already been repaid with "high interest". In Abascal's party they believe that Sánchez has promoted this veto as has been done in Germany with the far-right AfD, using pressure from institutions.

The legal framework

Anonymous and targeted donations are prohibited by the party financing law and already constitute a crime of illegal financing under Article 304 bis 1 of the Penal Code, with penalties of between three and five times the value of the donations. In its aggravated version, when the amount exceeds half a million euros, it could also carry prison sentences of up to four years.

David Sans, criminal lawyer expert in illegal party financing, who wrote his doctoral thesis on this very subject, points out the complications of convicting under the aggravated form of illegal financing because "it would be necessary to prove that these alleged donations exceeded half a million euros." He sees this as difficult because the evidence provided consists of images taken from Vox's social media posts since 2020 in news tables. He also adds that "the lack of prior legal precedents" opens the door to "interpretative problems" regarding how to reach the half-million euro threshold.

One of the elements he highlights is that the regulations on party financing, which are not criminal, are often confused with the crime of illegal financing. Thus, he argues that the anonymous donations for which Vox has been sanctioned are already prohibited by the 2007 law on the financing of political parties, but it remains to be seen whether they reach the level of the aggravated crime that carries a prison sentence, which was established in 2015. the second was 330,000.

Alvise, pointed out

Regarding the case of Alvise Pérez, which has been left alone by the break with his fellow MEPs, is being investigated for spreading a fake PCR The Supreme Court has requested a waiver of immunity from the President of the Generalitat (Catalan government), Salvador Illa, for which the Supreme Court has requested a waiver in the European Parliament. Also planned is the revocation of his immunity for the €100,000 he received from an alleged criminal who publicly stated that he had "bought" him in an act of "corruption." This is a "targeted donation," in this case for promoting "a cryptocurrency platform," according to the lawyer.