Twenty-two former senior officials of Pedro Sánchez’s governments have received a total of 1,151,173 euros since they left the Executive as compensation after ceasing their responsibilities, according to the latest report from the Transparency Portal. The former vice president Pablo Iglesias, the all-powerful director of the Moncloa Cabinet Iván Redondo and the ministers Reyes Maroto, Pedro Duque, Arancha González Laya, Isabel Celáa and the now deceased José Guirao have taken advantage of this benefit, as have several former secretaries of state. In fact, the former Secretary of State for Equality, Noelia Vera, from Podemos, is the one who has earned the most for this concept.
Only outgoing ministers and secretaries of State (not undersecretaries or advisors) have the right to access this compensation, called ‘the VIP unemployment of politicians’, which amounts to 80% of the salary they received in the Government. They can receive it for the same time that they have remained in their position and up to a maximum of two years, as stated in Law 3/2015, regulating the exercise of the high position of the General Administration of the State.
The benefit must be requested by the beneficiary and in many cases, it is an income that politicians receive until they receive approval from the Conflict of Interest Office, which analyzes their incompatibilities and allows them to return to private activity in a field. alien to the one they have occupied in the Government.
That has been the case, for example, of Pablo Iglesias, who earned 27,290.96 euros from April 1, 2021 to September 4 of that year.
It was then that he received authorization from the Conflict of Interest Office to collaborate with various media outlets and with the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC).
Former Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya found herself in the same situation.
She earned 35,133.40 euros from August 2021 to February 2022, when she was allowed to accept the position of dean of the Paris School of International Affairs.
Or the first Sánchez’s top advisor, Iván Redondo.
Dismissed in the Government crisis of July 2021, he earned 22,345.21 euros in total from August 1 of that year until November 7, when he was granted permission to begin writing columns in the media.
Among the former members of the Sánchez Government, the casuistry is extensive. Former Minister of Education Isabel Celáa earned 29,194.66 euros between August 1, 2021 and January 25, 2022, when she was appointed ambassador to the Holy See.
Her colleague in Industry, Reyes Maroto, earned 13,412.33 euros since she left the Executive, on April 1, 2023, after being designated by the president as a candidate for the Mayor of Madrid for the PSOE, until she took office. in the Plaza de Cibeles, on June 16 of that year.
The same happened with Hana Jalloul, who received 15,434.32 euros from April 1, 2021 to June 7 of that year, when she took her seat as socialist spokesperson in the Madrid Assembly.
In the months that elapsed between receiving one political salary and another, they received this compensation.
Those who benefited the most from the compensation have been some of the members of the second tier of Sánchez’s Executives. The former senior official who has earned the most has been Noelia Vera, with 148,983.32 euros from November 1, 2021, a month after leaving politics, until July 27, 2023.
The former number two of Irene Montero in Equality, predecessor in office of Ángela Rodríguez ‘Pam’ and one of the most visible faces of Podemos, most anti-caste and anti-privilege of politicians, has made the most of this compensation, since she was in position 608 days and has collected it for 633 days.
Just after her entitlement to benefits expired, Vera began working in the private sector. According to his profile on Linkedin, since August 2023 he has been in the direction of Momma Comunicación, “an agency specialized in the design and management of content for institutions, companies and organizations, with special dedication to digital marketing, media management, advocacy politics and institutional relations.
Fernando Martín Valenzuela (former Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 134,589.14 euros) is also in the group with the highest income, taking advantage of the maximum extension of his right; Marco Aguiriano (former Secretary of State of the EU, 133,667.69) and Juan Pablo de la Iglesia (International Cooperation, also 133,667.69).
Similar amounts have been received by two veteran senior socialist officials who, at the end of their political careers, have held prominent positions in the Sánchez governments: Consuelo Rumí, former Secretary of State for Migration, earned 133,112.72 euros after leaving office, and Octavio Granado , former Secretary of State for Social Security, 129,887.
Although it is completely legal, this high compensation generates great controversy. First, because it is very far from the unemployment benefit received by workers who are not dedicated to politics.
And also because sometimes, it is received by people whose permanence in office has been marked by controversy: a paradigmatic case is that of the former Minister of Health Carmen Montón, who resigned on September 12, 2018, despite the fact that Sánchez supported her until the last moment, after it was discovered that he altered his master’s grades and that he plagiarized a work.
Montón was minister for 101 days, requested the benefit and received it for 97 days (15,116.12 euros). In March 2020, the president appointed her permanent observer ambassador of Spain to the Organization of American States, an institution based in Washington.
Two former senior officials who left the Government amid criticism have also requested the benefit: the former director of the National Intelligence Center (CNI), with the rank of Secretary of State, Paz Esteban López, dismissed after the controversy over the wiretapping of the ‘Pegasus case. ‘, and the former Secretary of State for Transport Isabel Pardo de Vera, removed after the scandal of the Cercanías trains of Asturias and Cantabria that did not fit through some tunnels.
Both are already collecting (and will do so well into 2024 if they do not first request the end of the benefit) 7,306.02 euros per month.
The last time it was regulated was in 2015, but compensation for former senior officials is not a new measure. The General State Budgets for 1981 already established a right similar to the current one that was approved with two objectives: to compensate for the limitations foreseen for the exercise of the professional activity of senior officials after leaving the Government and to favor the return to professional activity. after completing the period of incompatibility required when leaving political office.
Former representatives of socialist and popular governments have claimed compensation, but in the last decade, society’s demand for greater transparency in the management of public funds has brought to light the names of the petitioners and the amounts received.
Thus, since 2012, the State coffers have allocated a total of 6,452,634 euros to compensate not only politicians, but also members of public and regulatory bodies, who were left without work after leaving their positions.
From the Mariano Rajoy era, the former Minister of Economy Luis de Guindos (9,382.46 euros), the Minister of Defense Pedro Morenés (17,530.30) or the Minister of Education José Ignacio Wert (4,598.79) took advantage of this benefit after leaving the Executive and before returning to their new jobs.
Other prominent personalities of those Executives also did so, such as the Secretary of State for Communication, Carmen Martínez Castro, the popular one who has received the most, 160,756.60 euros. Other former secretaries of State of the PP such as Marcial Marín, Carmen Martínez Ten, Antonio Beteta or Víctor Calvo-Sotelo received, in the two years following leaving their positions, amounts above 150,000 euros, according to data from the Transparency Portal.
But the largest figures have not been entered by politicians or at least, not by those who exercised politics, but by senior officials of different organizations.
In the last decade, the person who has received the most compensation after leaving his position has been the former president of the National Securities Market Commission Julio Segura, who received 236,789.66 euros (9,955.13 per month) between 8 October 2012 and October 7, 2014 (expanding the maximum two years established by law), at a time when Spain was still far from recovering from the economic crisis of 2008.
The second highest earner has been Bernardo Lorenzo, former president of the Telecommunications Market Commission, who received 225,358.56 euros (9,389.94 per month) from November 2, 2013 to November 1, 2015. Marcel Coderch y Collel, former vice president of the Telecommunications Market Commission, took 214,368.96 euros in the same period; and thus a long list of advisors from regulatory and public organizations (Nuclear Safety Council, National Energy Commission, National Competition Commission) who, once they abandoned their work, in the following two years, received sums above 160,000 euros.
All data comes from the latest update of compensation for dismissal of senior officials from the Transparency Portal and is updated as of October 6, 2023. In this database, which has 81 names, the position of each person also appears, the cessation date, the start and end date of the benefit, the monthly amount that corresponds and the final payment, this last information provided that the payment has ended. There are some cases in which the final perception is 0, although there is a monthly amount and a period that has already ended (Fernando Torremocha, Miren Idoia Zenarrutzabeitia and Eduardo García). In addition, there are two other cases in which there is no end or total date, although the maximum period of two years would have already occurred (Sebastián Albella and Ana M. Martínez-Pina). Regarding the dates, in the data of Antoni Gurguí, former advisor to the Nuclear Safety Council, there is a start date (January 2015) prior to the cessation date (October 2015). In this same sense, the amount (93,398.36) referenced for José María Lassalle, former Secretary of State for the Information Society and Digital Agenda with Rajoy, does not coincide with the monthly contribution assigned (6,671.31 euros) in the referenced period (July 2018 to January 2019).
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