While trying to return to the French political debate, the former Prime Minister (PS) Manuel Valls is overtaken by his candidacy for the municipal elections in Barcelona, in May 2019. The Tribunal des Comptes (equivalent to the Court of Auditors in France) noted several irregularities in the campaign spending of the former mayor of Evry, according to an official report whose existence was revealed by the Spanish press.
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The report of the Court of Auditors, approved by this body on February 25 and recently made public on its website, highlights undeclared campaign expenses with a total value of 189,497 euros.
These funds come, for the most part, from the “Association Barcelona Capital Europea”, the platform on which Manuel Valls applied before forming a coalition with independents and members of Ciudadanos.
Used for the benefit of the electoral campaign, this money should have come from the coalition and not from the association, considered as "a third person", underlines the report.
The financing by third parties "of the acquisition of goods, works or services or of any expenditure generated by the activity of political parties constitutes an irregularity punishable by sanctions", explains the Court of Accounts.
The authorized spending limit exceeded by more than 71%
In addition, the report points to the exceeding of the authorized limit of expenditure, set at 178,237 euros for this election.
Manuel Valls's team, now Barcelona city councilor, spent 126,819 euros more, an excess of 71.15%, for a total of 305,056 euros.
The Tribunal specifies that it has forwarded its report to the Spanish Parliament and Government.
A year ago, the former French Prime Minister seemed to send signals about a possible return to France by granting several interviews to media in France.
At the beginning of March, Manuel Valls indicated that he would not run for mayor of Barcelona in 2023. He came fourth in the municipal elections in his hometown, with the support of the anti-independence liberal party Ciudadanos, after the failure of his presidential ambitions in 2017 in France.