The Court of Auditors asks to change the party financing law

The Court of Auditors has approved in plenary session this week to propose to the Cortes that the organic law on the financing of political parties be modified, after having verified the disproportionate damage that its application causes in “the case of small political formations, generally local”. It is the second time that the court requests this modification to the parliamentary groups.

The highest auditing body of public funds underlines the high amount of the sanctions derived from its report on the municipal elections held on May 26, 2019. This report was approved on January 25, 2021 and has given rise to sanctions “in the that a lack of proportionality between the amount of the infraction committed and the sanction finally imposed in application of the current sanctioning regime is revealed.

The court has emphasized that the law establishes minimum thresholds for fines for very serious, serious and minor infractions, which amount to 50,000, 25,000 and 5,000 euros, respectively. The plenary session notes that “the disproportion generated by the application of these minimums is especially serious in the case of small political formations, generally local in scope.” For these formations, the maximum limit of electoral expenses established in the regulations is very low, which, according to the Court of Auditors itself, “prevents them from undertaking an electoral campaign with sufficient guarantees”.

Second notice

On July 27 of last year, the plenary session of the court already approved a motion in which the need to solve this problem was underlined. The first agreement, therefore, was taken during the previous term, and this second comes with the plenary session arising from the renewal agreed by the Government and the PP last November. Having verified that no steps have been taken to modify the legislation on sanctions, the new request addressed to the Courts, agreed by the current Court of Auditors, includes the request that the legislative modification “could enter into force before the date in which, in accordance with the applicable electoral regulations, the call for the municipal elections to be held on May 28, 2023 will take place.