The millionaire loan that Vox received from a Hungarian bank and the 100,000 euros of black money collected by Alvise Pérez, promoter of Se Acabó La Fiesta (SALF), have aggravated suspicions about the financing of the two main extreme groups Spanish right and, in particular on how they financed the campaigns of the last electoral cycle which ended with the European elections in June.
Although they have presented themselves from the start as “outsiders” in politics compared to the traditional parties which they consider to be “of the system” and use the fight against corruption as one of their great flags to obtain votes , both found different shortcuts that skirt the law. . parties to raise significant sums to finance their respective political parties.
Vox was born by attacking “chiringuitos”, a term with which the far-right group designates both public organizations that do not interest them, as well as associations that receive public funding to promote feminism, LGBTI equality or human rights. , among other purposes. The rejection of public subsidies to political parties, unions or employers’ organizations is also one of its main flags.
It was Abascal who invented this speech, although only a few years before the founding of Vox he had agreed to direct the Foundation for the Patronage and Sponsorship of the Community of Madrid, created expressly for him by Esperanza Aguirre, for which he received 82,000 euros per year in public aid. money and which he himself later admitted was not a necessary organization. And now, despite his messages, public money constitutes the main source of financing for his party: it represents 82% of its income, according to its latest accounts, those for 2023.
Precisely that year, Vox received a loan of nine million euros from a Hungarian bank with the aim of financing the various electoral campaigns of that year: regional, municipal and early general elections. Even if at first the far-right party avoided specifying where this money came from, on September 26, the investigative media Vsquare directly pointed the finger at a financial entity: MBH Bank.
It is, according to the same media, “a financial giant resulting from the merger of three entities” and which partly belongs “to Lőrinc Mészáros, the richest businessman in Hungary and childhood friend of Orbán”. In addition, as revealed by elDiario.es last Monday, the Hungarian bank’s main shareholder is Corvinus International Investment, an investment company 100% controlled by the Hungarian state and chaired by Viktor Orbán. It is also one of the companies behind the public takeover bid (OPA) launched by Magyar Vagon for the railway manufacturer Talgo, which the government vetoed for reasons of “national security”. .
“Given the impossibility of obtaining this loan, which all political parties obtain, especially during the electoral period, and given the delay, we do not know if it is deliberate or not, from the General Administration of the “State with electoral expenses that correspond to any party policy and the impossibility, since no bank was willing to lend it to us, since we turned to a Hungarian bank”, recognized this week Pepa Millán, spokesperson Vox’s word to Congress, which did not want to engage in evaluations on the entity’s ownership.
The Spanish legislation in force – in particular article 7 of the Law on Parties – establishes, however, that “parties cannot accept any form of financing from governments and public or related bodies, entities or companies directly or indirectly indirectly with them.” .” Vox itself admitted to having been financed, thanks to this nine million loan, by a bank whose main shareholder is the Hungarian state.
In the hands of the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office
While waiting for this performance to be evaluated by Justice, the person who is the subject of a judicial investigation is Alvise Pérez, the SALF MEP who has always based his speech on the fight against the alleged widespread corruption of traditional parties. Just before the European elections in which the ultra project obtained 800,000 votes and three seats, Pérez collected 100,000 euros of black money from Álvaro Romilla, founder of the Madeira Invest Club (MIC).
It is an investment office specializing in cryptocurrencies sponsored by Alvise himself and which closed unexpectedly in September, after taking investors’ money. This Friday, the judge of the National Court José Luis Calama admitted three complaints filed against those responsible for the Madeira Invest Club for treatment, considering that it is an “alleged pyramid operation”.
On September 24, the State Public Prosecutor’s Office sent the letter, revealed by elDiario.es, in which Romilla admitted having paid these 100,000 euros in person to the founder of SALF after verifying the existence of signs of criminality in this collection of money.
Messages and audio revealed by this same newspaper showed how Alvise admitted to having received this money in May, in the middle of the European campaign. In his conversations with Romilla, the ultra leader explained to him that these 100,000 euros – “100,000 thanks”, he even told him – were very useful to him to finance the campaign. And a few days before, in April, Alvise had announced his “needs”, among which he cited “funds which do not require control by the Court of Auditors” to finance rallies, advertising and campaign events .
Alvise’s objective, as he himself declared to his interlocutor, was to raise “between 300,000 and 360,000 euros” to face the electoral campaign and pay the “suppliers” with whom he was in contact. He also alluded to the need to secure “party funds” which he regretted not being able to pay for out of his own pocket due to the limitations of political party financing rules. But also, as he said, to be able to financially cope with the electoral promise of receiving his salary and the “fines” that he, according to him, would have to pay for “revealing secrets”.
Different messages sent to the prosecution show that Alvise wanted this money, at least in part, to finance his trip to Brussels. “We need funds for the campaign; digital, physical, audiovisual, propaganda, logistics, etc. “As I am going to give up 100% of my public salary, it is also good for me to finance the political adventure,” he added during this exchange with the cryptocurrency businessman.
After the scandal revealed by elDiario.es, Alvise published a message on his social networks that he recorded on video, admitting to having collected this money in black. “I accepted, and it is true, to collect these private contributions without invoice to have more savings and not to enrich myself thanks to my political activity,” he declared. “I will not wait for any trial because I do not need any judge, I am guilty as an independent who was paid in cash for work of which the State then loots more than half from me,” a- he added. .
The law on party financing prohibits anonymous donations and establishes that political parties cannot accept or receive directly or indirectly from the same person donations exceeding 50,000 euros per year, nor donations from legal entities. Furthermore, any donation exceeding 25,000 euros must be notified to the Court of Auditors by the political party within three months of its acceptance.
The previous ones
These scandals linked to the far right are in addition to those known in recent months concerning the financing of Vox, which, for years, has transferred millions of euros, most of them coming from public funds, to a foundation, Disenso, chaired by Santiago. Abascal. Although in 2023 the party lost two million euros in income, the party continued to make transfers to this foundation – mainly to increase salaries – to which since 2021 it has allocated 2.5 million euros per year .
Last year, Disenso, which only employs 26 people, had 2.8 million euros. The 2.5 million that the party gave him plus two public subsidies of 150,000 euros and a small surplus from the previous year. And, since its creation, Disenso has received nine million euros from the party, an amount which far exceeds what the foundations of other political groups usually receive.
As for Alvise Pérez, the scandal of the black payment of 100.00 euros is added to his civil convictions for defamation against Ana Pastor and Manuela Carmena and to the multiple criminal investigations opened for revealing secrets through his social networks, dedicated exclusively to disseminating hoaxes and falsified information. about their political rivals.
