The Vox party has been fined for the third time by the Court of Accounts (TCU), the official body that controls electoral expenses and the financing of parties in Spain. On this occasion, with 50,000 euros for raising finalist donations, that is, to propose that there are money for a specific cause, something expressly prohibited by the Law on Financing of Political Parties. As the court explained in a press release, the Abascal party has been audited – as is done with everyone – and this infraction has been detected in the 2020 accounts.
This fine, which can be appealed by the formation of Abascal, adds to that imposed by the same body with respect to the accounting of the years 2018 and 2019, where it found anonymous money revenues in ATMs and also finalist donations. On that occasion, the TCC imposed 132,000 euros, since the amount collected irregularly was greater. The accounts of the following year, of 2019 and 2020, also showed irregularities of the same type, which were fined with 862,000 euros.
On this last occasion, the agency has reported that “the Plenary of the Court of Accounts has agreed to impose a sanction on the Vox political formation for very serious infraction provided for in article 17. Two a) of the Organic Law on Financing of the Political Parties, consisting of making or accepted finalist donations in the control of the annual accounts of the 2020 exercise”, something for which it had already been adapted and sanctioned in previous revisions.
The Court of Accounts had already informed in its 2018 and 2019 report of an exponential growth of the income of the extreme right party for merchandising and sale of pins, keychains or pens (22,000 euros raised in 2018, compared to 354,000 in 2019). The money was mostly entered into bank accounts in quantities below 300 euros, which made the alarms jump. Because? Because from 300 euros, the merchandising buyer also has to be identified, according to the law. To this we must add the specific campaigns for which money was requested, such as 'complaint against Quim Torra', for which he raised 31,664.80 euros. Of that collection, the Court of Accounts considered irregular the capture of 10,563.45 euros, since it argues that the rest of the money were contributions from its own affiliates.
The party has more open fronts, such as the financing he received from a Hungarian bank linked to President Orbán for the 2023 elections, something that the Court of Auditors has also investigated, since the law that prohibits the parties from receiving financing from foreign public entities. In his report on the inspection of the campaign expenses of the political parties in the last general elections, he confirmed that Vox received a loan of 6.5 million euros from the financial entity of Hungary from which he used a total of 6 million in the election campaign. In addition, according to the accounts recently presented by the party before its assembly, Vox requested a second credit of 7 million to the same bank, which at the end of 2024 owed more than two million.
