Feijóo’s three salaries: he was paid as a senator, as leader of the PP and a complement as president of the popular parliamentary group in the Senate | Spain

2023-08-17 00:54:34

Alberto Núñez Feijóo has received three different remunerations in the exercise of his functions as a public office. Until now, the leadership of the Popular Party had ensured that the leader of the PP received a salary like any other senator from outside Madrid – about 72,000 euros, paid by the Upper House -, and a second allowance by virtue of his position as head of training —39,260 euros, which the PP paid from April to December 2022. But Feijóo received a third amount as “president of the popular parliamentary group in the Senate”, as eldiario.es has exclusively advanced and this newspaper has confirmed sources from the PP leadership. According to eldiario.es, the amount of that third amount last year amounted to 31,850 euros. The third remuneration was paid for by the popular parliamentary group of the Senate, the same sources assure EL PAÍS. “He charged the supplement that all presidents charged,” they point out.

Feijóo’s economic situation changed in April of last year when he was appointed president of the PP, because —as he himself acknowledged in an interview with SER—, he receives remuneration from the Popular Party by virtue of his position. But these amounts were not reflected in the declaration of assets and income that Feijóo presented in the Upper House in May 2022, when he became a senator, and they were not added a posteriori either. On June 28, after days in which the PP leader insisted on his refusal to make public how much money he received from the party, the PP leadership got off the hook, telling the media that the popular president received 39,260 euros gross, subject to taxes, from April to December of last year. The popular leader’s cabinet also stated that they would update his declaration of assets in the Senate, later, when Feijóo left his seat in the Permanent Delegation of the Upper House, a position that he finally left three weeks ago.

However, as EL PAÍS published this Saturday, Feijóo did not update his declaration of assets and income after leaving office as a regional senator on July 28. According to the criteria applied by his cabinet —contrary to that of the president of the Senate, the socialist Ander Gil, and that of parliamentary sources—, he had a margin until August 27. But, this Wednesday, Feijóo has collected his credentials as a deputy in Congress and has presented the new declaration of assets and income in the lower house — to which he has agreed eldiario.es—, and in which, as published, it is reflected that together with the other two amounts he received 31,850 euros as president of the popular parliamentary group of the Senate.

Regarding this remuneration, unknown to date, the PP leadership assures that “it is not a PP salary” nor a “representation expense”, as are the other 39,260 euros received by virtue of the position of president of the popular. That amount, they add from his cabinet, is due to a “complement” from the Senate parliamentary group, as is the case with other “spokespersons” or “committee presidents.” “That differentiates them in salary from a simple deputy. Without this complement, Maroto would win more from the Senate than Feijóo ”, assert management sources. The PP spokesman in the lower house, Javier Maroto, receives 23,076.84 euros from the popular parliamentary group, according to the declaration of assets published on the Senate website. Other parliamentarians such as the socialist Eva Granados, spokesperson for the PSOE in the upper house, do not receive an extra for holding that position, according to her public statement.

Granados herself has charged against the leader of the PP, on the night of this Wednesday, through Twitter. “Feijóo lies and lies again. Also in the bonus of him. They know neither integrity nor public service”. Through the same social network, Pilar Alegría, spokesperson for the PSOE and acting Minister of Education, added that “Feijóo has a bonus. Feijóo has lied. Feijóo is not to be trusted”.

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The president of the Senate, Ander Gil, sent a formal request at the end of June to Feijóo demanding that he update his declaration of assets in the Senate before July 4 based on the wording of article 26 of the Senate Regulations and 160 of the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG). According to this article of the Senate regulations, senators “are obliged to formulate” a declaration of activities and another of patrimonial assets. The same precept, in its section 2, specifies: “Both declarations must be formulated at the beginning of their term, as a requirement for the perfection of the status of senator and, likewise, within the period of thirty calendar days following the loss of said condition. or the modification of the circumstances initially declared”.

To justify then that they did not update the statement, the PP used the first meaning of article 26.2 of the regulation – “within thirty calendar days following the loss of said condition” -, but both parliamentary sources and the president of the Senate understand that as soon as this modification is produced, the update must become effective and not wait until the end of the mandate.

But the head of the opposition disobeyed the socialist Ander Gil, fourth authority of the State, by virtue of his own arguments. “The president of the PP will update his income and patrimony data in accordance with the regulated terms that he has as a senator belonging to the Permanent Deputation of the Chamber,” said sources from the popular leadership. Senators are required to update the statement at least 30 calendar days after leaving the record. According to the criteria of the PP, therefore, it had until August 27 to comply with said obligation.

But there was the possibility that Feijóo’s remuneration was known beforehand, because the PP leader was going this Wednesday to collect his credentials as a new deputy of Congress, and the regulations of the Lower House also require the registration of the declaration of assets. And in which Feijóo has included that third payment as president of the popular parliamentary group.

The amount that Feijóo receives from the party – the second amount, of 39,260 euros, paid by the PP – is for “representation expenses” and not as a separate salary, the PP leadership insists. But this denomination is not new, since since the time of the former president of the Government and of the PP José María Aznar it is collected as such. However, in the past it was shown that these “representation expenses” were paid in 14 payments, including two extra payments, as is usually the case with regular salaries.

Pablo Casado, Feijóo’s predecessor, exposed, in the income statement that he registered in June 2019 in Congress, receiving a salary of 47,720 net euros from the PP, apart from what he received for his status as deputy. Mariano Rajoy declared between 2006 and 2011 a party income of between 146,000 and 200,000 gross euros per year, according to his declarations of assets as a result of the Bárcenas case scandal, and 50,000 gross euros per year as a deputy in Congress. The courts established that José María Aznar received bonuses from the PP and that he did so on at least three occasions when he was already in charge of the Government, a circumstance that was prohibited by the Law of Incompatibilities of Senior Positions.