Spanish socialists file irregular financing claim against Vox

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's Socialist Party filed a complaint with the state prosecutor against the far-right Vox party on Thursday for alleged irregular financing, which included a multimillion loan from a Hungarian bank.

The ruling PSOE (S&D) party filed the complaint against Vox (Patriots for Europe/PfE) after having “found” that “at least since 2020”, the far-right formation had been using “a series of irregular elements to capture economic income”, including “piggy banks or money boxes” on the info points it had set up in Spain’s major cities.

Shortly after the news broke, Vox's spokesperson in parliament, Pepa Millán, said, “If that is their way of diverting the focus of attention, then let them go to court and do what they want, but come on, we are not worried; the ones who should be worried are them."

Millán was referring to the 'Koldo' case and an ongoing investigation into Begoña Gómez, Sánchez’s wife.

“The PSOE and the government are surrounded by corruption”, Millán added.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the PSOE said Vox had raised funds through several irregular financing schemes that “could amount to €5 million, according to data obtained from the annual accounts that the political formation has published on its website.”

In its complaint, the PSOE points to a € 6.5 million loan granted by Hungarian bank MBH Bank Nyrt, owned by a childhood friend of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, which they said Vox had tried to hide from its official accounts, RTVE reported.

However, Vox admitted to the loan in October, arguing that they could not secure the funds from Spanish banks. The party said the loan was given in two tranches and had already been repaid in full.

The Spanish far-right party is led by Santiago Abascal, recently appointed as the new head of the European group Patriots for Europe, made up, among other forces, of Italy's La Lega, France's Rassemblement National, Spain’s Vox, Dutch PVV and Portugal's Chega.

Fundraising in a very opaque way

Vox has 33 deputies in the Spanish parliament and doubled its number of seats in the European Parliament from three to six after the European elections in June.

According to the PSOE, Vox could have violated the Law on Political Party Financing, adding that the far-right party “could be committing the crime of illegal financing of political parties as laid out in article 304 bis of the Penal Code”.

In addition to the loans, PSOE points to the sale of merchandising products at Vox's street information stands as another means of “raising funds in cash in an absolutely opaque way”.

PSOE sources stated that this income “also seems to lack any traceability, as it is confused with the income from anonymous donations,” which, according to Vox’s internal guidelines published by various media, are marked at “ a value of less than €300 to avoid identifying a person.”

In this way, “it (Vox) would once again infringe the financing regulations, which prohibit the financing of political parties by governments and foreign public bodies, entities or companies or companies directly or indirectly related to them”.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)