Vox deputies have participated in 15 trips abroad organized by Congress so far this term. And for them they have received at least 5,850 euros in international allowances. This is a labor compensation established in the economic regime of the Chamber for maintenance and travel expenses generated on the occasion of these official trips. Specifically, 150 euros per person per day if it is outside of Spain. A system to which the representatives of the extreme right embrace exactly the same as the rest of the parliamentary groups that they point out for promoting a “waste” that they now denounce as unjustified.
“We are talking about trips in which the deputies do not have to spend absolutely anything, because they go in a delegation in which they are cared for. And, therefore, in most cases they do not need to spend those allowances. And they do not have to return them and they keep them,” criticized the parliamentary spokesperson for Vox, Pepa Millán, this week at a press conference.
Sources from the Lower House assure that there are no returns or rejections of these complements by any of the deputies who have participated in delegations abroad, nor by Vox. “You participate in trips based on the political situation and usefulness of the moment and, when you leave, you observe the regime in force,” Abascal's people limit themselves to answering about why they do not reject an economic supplement that they denounce.
“When Vox has the necessary representational strength, it will reduce superfluous public spending both in Congress and in all the institutions to which it has access. For reasons like this – and other superfluous expenses such as earpieces and translation – Vox has always voted against the Congressional Budget or has expressed itself against the decisions of the Board,” sources from the parliamentary group add.
According to the official minutes of Congress activity consulted by elDiario.es, up to seven different parliamentarians from Vox have participated in some of the committees organized by Congress within the framework of the international activity of the Sectoral Commissions of the Chamber. The one who has traveled abroad the most from the ultra bench to date is Carlos Flores, the deputy for Valencia convicted at the time of sexist violence.
Flores participated as a member of the Foreign Affairs Commission, for example, in the official trip to Brussels between April 8 and 10, 2024. Three days of travel that meant an expense of 1,319 euros per person for the Chamber's budget, with hotel and plane expenses included and with 450 euros in travel and meal allowances for each member of the delegation.
The Valencian Vox deputy has participated in a total of five international trips as a representative of his political formation in one of the commissions of which he is a member. In the majority of reports of these trips, consulted by this newspaper, it is detailed that, indeed, in the work meetings attended by the deputies they are already offered lunches or dinners.
Vox spokesperson, Pepa Millán, attacked during her appearance against the allowances for an official trip to China, precisely a delegation in which her political party did not participate. This is a movement of representatives of the Foreign Affairs Committee on the occasion of the '50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Spain', which took place between May 11 and 16 and which, according to Millán's calculations, meant that the displaced deputies “pocketed 1,200 euros” each.
“This is because the PSOE, with Batet as president of Congress, changed it. And there is no longer a need to present those invoices and we demand that they return to that system. Because that money does not belong to the deputies, it belongs to the Spaniards, and here it is constantly wasted,” he concluded.
The spokesperson said that this, the one to China, had been the last international trip so far of members of the Congress of Deputies, but that is not the case. Since the trip in May, the Lower House has organized 20 more international trips, of which Vox has participated in six. The last one was just a month ago, when far-right deputy Carina Mejía went to Copenhagen for two days as a member of the Economy Commission to participate in the conference 'Strengthening the EU's competitiveness: interparliamentary dialogue on improving innovation and growth frameworks'.
In 2020, and under the presidency of the socialist Meritxell Batet, the Congress Board agreed to recover the old per diem system with the same amounts established since 2006: 150 euros per day in the case of trips abroad and 120 euros per day in the case of trips within the national territory.
Until that moment, and since the modification of the economic regime promoted by the Popular Party in 2017, deputies were reimbursed for “the expenses incurred and duly justified, with a limit of 150 euros per day for trips abroad and 120 euros per day for trips within the national territory.” Exactly the system that Vox proposes to return to while benefiting, like the rest of the groups, from the one currently implemented.