Spain’s Court of Auditors fines far-right VOX for irregular donations

Spain's Court of Auditors imposed on Tuesday (9 July) two sanctions on the far-right VOX party, the third force in the Spanish parliament, for what it said were two serious violations of Spanish law on party financing.

The party received donations totalling €233,324 in 2018 and 2019 to support two political initiatives, including one related to the separatist movement in Catalonia.

According to sources at the Spanish Court, both sanctions can be appealed by VOX before the Supreme Court.

The irregular donations VOX received in 2018 and 2019 constitute “very serious” infractions as stated in the Law on the Financing of Political Parties in Spain, Euractiv´s partner EFE reported.

The controversial donations were €120,483 to support the initiative “Help us with the Borja bail”, intended to help the legal defence of a young man accused of murder, and  €31,665 to support the initiative “Complaint against Quim Torra”, who was in 2019 the president of Catalonia’s government (Generalitat).

In the first case, the fine totals € 183,324, while in the second case, the sanction is the minimum under Spanish law for that type of offence: €50,000.

The far-right party has almost 33,000 members who pay their membership fees, although VOX sources speak of nearly 67,000, counting those who may be behind with their membership fees.

In the European elections on 9 June, VOX doubled its number of seats compared to 2019 from three to six, although for the first time, it faced competition from the new far-right formation Se Acabó la Fiesta (SALF/The Party is Over), led by the controversial Alvise Pérez, which won three seats.

Giorgia Meloni, “una di noi”, says VOX

VOX leader Santiago Abascal announced on Friday (5 July) that the party would leave the Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, led by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and join the new Patriots for Europe group, led by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, which became the third largest force in the European Parliament.

However, Abascal stressed on Monday (8 July) that his strong personal friendship with Meloni will not be affected by VOX's departure from the ECR group and underlined that his decision to join Patriots for Europe is only due to his desire to defend more strongly Spain's interests in Brussels and Strasbourg

The head of VOX's delegation to the European Parliament, Jorge Buxadé, also said his party's political action will not change by the move to Orban’s group.

“We firmly believe that the future of Europe depends on the future of the unity of patriotic parties and we will continue to do so," Buxadé told the media on Monday.

"Just as in these (last) five years we were in the ECR and invited leaders like Orbán or (Marine) Le Pen to our political events, so we will do now in Patriots for Europe. We maintain all the strength of our bilateral relations with the ECR group”, he said.

“Meloni has been, is, and will continue to be 'una di noi', our friend, ally and partner”, Buxadé said on X.

The Patriots for Europe group is made up of 30 MEPs from France's Rassemblement national (RN), 11 from Hungary's Fidesz, eight from Italian Liga, seven from Czech ANO, six apiece from VOX, Dutch PVV, and Austria’s FPÖ, three from Belgian Vlaams Belang, two from Portuguese Chega! and from Czech United Motorists, and one each from Greece's Voice of Reason, Latvia’s First Party, and Danish People's Party.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]