The PP joins the hoax that the Red Cross Foundation receives subsidies because the Albares couple has an honorary position

The Popular Party of Alberto Núñez Feijóo has decided to give rise to another hoax. The conservative party has registered a parliamentary question implying that the Red Cross has seen the amount of its subsidies increased because one of the vice presidents of the Red Cross Foundation – a parallel organization but different from the Red Cross – is Therese Jamaa, the minister’s current partner. of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares. The thesis has been spread by far-right media and has served to discredit the work of the humanitarian organization in recent weeks.

“Coincidentally, the Spanish Red Cross Foundation, where the minister’s partner currently serves as vice president, has experienced a notable increase in public subsidies since his arrival, exceeding 600 million euros – just from Government aid – in 2023,” he points out. the PP in the question to the Government that it has registered in Congress. Jamaa’s position is an honorary position, for which he does not receive any compensation.

“What technical criteria justified the injection of 600 million euros to the Red Cross Foundation, and why has this increase coincided with the arrival of Minister Albares’ partner to the Foundation?”, the popular ones ask. “What oversight procedures have been carried out to evaluate the destination and impact of grants awarded to organizations or foundations in the last five years? What specific measures is the Government implementing to prevent and detect possible conflicts of interest in relationships between public subsidies and organizations directed by people with personal ties to members of the Executive?” he adds.

In November, websites like EDATV tried to link the increase in public subsidies to the Red Cross with the fact that Jamaa is one of its honorary vice presidents. All of them also insisted that one of the major items in the honorary organization’s budget was for management salaries.

Given the hoaxes about the Albares couple launched by ultra media, the Red Cross itself has explained in X that Jamaa does not receive any type of financial compensation for being vice president of the foundation. “Do you know that this position is honorary (translated: does not charge)? There are fantastic people in this world who help others,” the humanitarian organization responded last month to a Twitter user who questioned the subsidies.

Furthermore, the Government has already responded to the PP that “there is no conflict of interest.” “On the one hand, the Red Cross Foundation has not received any subsidies or funds from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, or any other Ministry. Therefore, it is false that it has received 600 million euros in 2023,” recalls the Executive, who thus distinguishes between the Red Cross and the Red Cross Foundation of which Jamaa is vice president. “On the other hand,” adds the Government, “the aforementioned person holds an honorary, non-executive and unpaid position in that entity.”

According to its own Red Cross pageJamaa was born in Lebanon 52 years ago and at the age of 12 he fled the country at war with his family and settled in Paris, precisely thanks to the humanitarian organization. She studied International Trade in Paris, spent a year of Erasmus in Valladolid, has been General Director of the GSMA global employers’ association for the Mobile World Capital of Bacercelona and is currently a director of a technology company.

Hoaxes about the Red Cross proliferated after the DANA that devastated the province of Valencia, causing more than 200 deaths. Every day they registered more than 70,000 hate messages on their networks. Most of the messages were on the Telegram account of MEP Alvise Pérez (this channel alone adds more than the other 56 analyzed). And among the topics discussed were all kinds of hoaxes: destruction of medicines, abandonment of those affected, money that the institution spends on personnel… Among the most cited words were “help”, “people” or “money”, but they were also repeated others like “moors”, “shit”, “pateras” or “illegals”.

Last week the Red Cross announced its intention to fire 321 people, according to the Employment Regulation File (ERE) presented and reported by Comisiones Obreras. The NGO was condemned this summer by the National Court for applying a covert ERE on 149 employees.