Alberto Núñez Feijóo received 39,260 euros from the PP as party leader from April to December last year in “representation expenses”, according to sources of the leadership of the PP, El Mundo reported this Wednesday and this newspaper confirmed. But the PP insists on rejecting Senate President Socialist Ander Gil’s written motion this Tuesday asking Feijóo to update his wealth and income statement presented in the House of Lords in May 2022, one that doesn’t take into account how much money he receives as leader of the PP. “It is a letter signed by the President of the Senate but written by the PSOE campaign manager. It is based on the PSOE’s electoral urgency rather than compliance with current Senate regulations. “For a senator who is a member of the permanent delegation, the legal deadlines are known,” they claim from the Feijóo team.
The PP president will leave permanent representation in the Upper House on August 16, a day before entering Congress as a deputy once the Cortes is constituted, assuming he will not change his declaration of assets and register income in the Senate in May 2022. “The President of the PP will update his income and wealth data according to the regulated deadlines that he has as Senator of the permanent representation of the Chamber,” affirm the MPs. Feijóo “does not receive a salary from the People’s Party, but as President of the PP since April 2022, he has received a subsidy for representation costs, which is subject to income tax.” According to the management, the leader “spent 39,260 euros on this concept last year , with which he covered the costs of the organic responsibility he assumed as leader of the opposition.” In contrast, Feijóo’s annual salary as a senator amounts to 72,952.6 euros.
The term “representational expenditure” by the people is not new, as it has been collected as such since the time of former government and PP President José María Aznar. However, it has been shown in the past that these “representation expenses” were paid in 14 payments including two extra payments, as is usual with regular salaries. Pablo Casado, Feijóo’s predecessor, disclosed in the income statement he registered in Congress in June 2019 that he received a salary of 47,720 net euros from the PP, apart from what he claimed for his status as deputy received. According to his declarations of assets, Mariano Rajoy stated that between 2006 and 2011 his party income was between 146,000 and 200,000 euros gross per year; as a member of Congress it was 50,000 euros gross per year.
Senate President Ander Gil asked Feijóo on Tuesday to update his statement based on Article 26 of the Senate Rules and Article 160 of the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG). “Senators have a duty to complete both the activity declarations and the property and income declarations, not only at the beginning and end of their mandate, but also when there is a change in the circumstances originally declared, which counts with a.” Period of thirty calendar days from the date of this change”, justifies the fourth institution of the Kingdom of Spain.
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According to Article 26 of the Senate Rules and Article 160 of the LOREG, senators are “obliged to make a declaration of assets and a declaration of assets”. Article 26 of the Senate Rules states in Section 2: “Both declarations shall be made at the commencement of their term of office as a condition of the perfection of the status of Senator and likewise within the period of thirty calendar days following the loss of that condition or the alteration of that originally declared Circumstances”.
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From the outset, the PP has accepted the first meaning of Article 26.2 of the Regulation (“within thirty calendar days of the loss of this condition”) as justification for not updating the declaration, although it has acknowledged Feijóo, who receives remuneration as President of the Party that the PP refers to as “representation expenses”. A rationale that the people will uphold even as Gil (the state’s fourth agency) has a motion on the table that was released this Tuesday after a formal complaint was filed Monday by the Socialist Parliamentary Group, referring to the second part of the article (“or the change in the circumstances originally stated”). Not only did he emphasize that in May 2022, when he took office as a senator and presented his statement, he had already received these amounts, since he had been President of the PP for a month earlier, in April of this year.
According to several sources in the Cortes, there is a legal loophole in the legal system as to whether a MP can receive an additional salary if they are already receiving the salary as a senator and MP because the law does not specifically state whether or not it is possible to have both to receive salaries. And there were no concrete statements on this subject either. But apart from this legal uncertainty, the PP was warned in March that it was violating Law 19/2013 on transparency, access to public information and good governance. Article 8 of this regulation states that the subjects falling within its scope “must publish at least the information related to the administrative acts listed below with economic or budgetary implications”, such as: B. “The remuneration received annually by the senior officials and heads of the entities falling within the scope of the application.” Its scope includes precisely political parties.
Letter from the Transparency Council to the PP.
The Council for Transparency and Good Governance, an independent body, sent a formal notice to the People’s Party in March this year, accessed by this newspaper. The letter reported that they “received a letter pointing out deficiencies in the information on this political party’s website related to the publication regarding the remuneration of top leaders in the provisions referred to in Law 19/ 2013 relates”. of 9 December on Transparency, Access to Public Information and Good Governance”. And that, having consulted his website, “this information has not been identified” and it has been brought to his attention “for the purposes that he considered appropriate”. The document sent by the Transparency Council responded to a complaint from the Público newspaper, which found that the PP had not published the salaries of its top leaders on its website for months, and advanced the independent body’s response. This newspaper contacted Feijóo’s team to find out if they noticed such a tip and to get their assessment. At the moment he is waiting for your answer.
In an interview on Castilla-La Mancha Television this Wednesday, government spokeswoman Isabel Rodríguez accused Feijóo of these incidents: “This man still sits in an office paid for with black money and has been convicted of corruption.” Public officials also have duties , we have to play by the rules. There is a Transparency Act and Senate regulation and it should have declared that it is moving from the People’s Party. And he only voiced it a few days ago, and even though he voiced it, he still doesn’t show it. What don’t you want to tell us?”
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