Alberto Núñez Feijóo received 39,260 euros from the PP as president of the party as "representation expenses" from April to December last year, according to sources from the Popular Party leadership, as El Mundo has advanced this Wednesday and confirmed by this newspaper. But the PP insists on its rejection of the request made in writing on Tuesday by the president of the Senate, the socialist Ander Gil, in which he asks Feijóo to update his declaration of assets and income presented in the upper house in May 2022 and in which it does not appear how much money he receives as leader of the PP. "It is a letter signed by the president of the Senate, but that has written the campaign director of the PSOE. It is based on the electoral urgencies of the PSOE and not on compliance with the regulations in force in the Senate. The legal deadlines are known for a senator who is a member of the permanent deputation," they allege from Feijóo's team.

The president of the PP will leave the permanent deputation of the upper house on August 16, one day before he enters Congress as a deputy after the constitution of the Cortes, so it is understood that he will not modify his declaration of assets and income registered in the Senate in May 2022. "The president of the PP will update his income and wealth data according to the regulated deadlines he has as a senator belonging to the permanent deputation of the Chamber," reiterate the popular. Feijóo "does not have a salary in the Popular Party, but an allowance for representation expenses, subject to taxation through personal income tax, as president of the PP since April 2022." The leader, according to sources of the direction, entered "for this concept 39,260 euros last year, with which he faced the expenses intrinsic to the organic responsibilities he assumed as leader of the opposition." On the other hand, the annual amount of Feijóo as a senator amounts to 72,952.6 euros.

The denomination of "representation expenses" by the popular is not new, because since the time of the former president of the Government and the PP, José María Aznar, it is collected as such. However, in the past it was shown that these "representation expenses" were paid in 14 payments, including two extra payments, as is usually the case with salaries to use. Pablo Casado, the predecessor of Feijóo, exposed, in the income statement that he registered in June 2019 in Congress, receive from the PP a salary of 47,720 euros net, apart from what he received for his status as a deputy. Mariano Rajoy declared between 2006 and 2011 a party income of between 146,000 and 200,000 euros gross per year, according to his declarations of assets, and 50,000 euros gross per year as a deputy in Congress.

The president of the Senate, Ander Gil, had asked Feijóo on Tuesday to update his statement based on article 26 of the Senate regulations and 160 of the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (LOREG). "Senators have the obligation to complete both the declarations of activities and those of assets and income, not only at the beginning of their mandate and at the end of it, but also when there is a modification of the circumstances initially declared, counting for this with a period of thirty calendar days from the occurrence of said modification," reasons the fourth institution of the Kingdom of Spain.

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According to article 26 of the Rules of Procedure of the Senate, and according to article 160 of the LOREG, senators "are obliged to formulate" a declaration of activities and another of patrimonial assets. Article 26 of the rules of procedure of the Senate, in its paragraph 2, states: "Both declarations must be made at the beginning of their mandate, as a requirement for the perfection of the condition of senator and, likewise, within thirty calendar days following the loss of said status or the modification of the circumstances initially declared."

From the outset, the PP has invoked the first meaning of article 26.2 of the Regulation ("within thirty calendar days following the loss of said condition") as justification for not updating the statement, despite having recognized Feijóo that he receives remuneration as president of the party, and which the PP describes as "representation expenses". A reasoning that the popular maintain even with the request on the table of Gil (fourth authority of the State), issued on Tuesday after a formal complaint presented by the Socialist Parliamentary Group on Monday, which appeals to the second part of the article ("or the modification of the circumstances initially declared"). In addition to stressing that in May 2022, when he entered as a senator and presented his declaration, he already received those amounts, since he was president of the PP since a month before, April of that year.

The Transparency Council warned the PP in March

There is a legal loophole in the order, according to several sources of the Courts, on whether or not a parliamentarian can receive an added salary when he already receives the salary as a senator and deputy, since the law does not expressly contemplate whether or not it is possible to receive both salaries. And there have been no specific pronouncements on the matter either. But, apart from this legal uncertainty, the PP was warned in March that it contravened Law 19/2013 on Transparency, Access to Public Information and Good Governance. This standard indicates, in its article 8, that the subjects included in its scope "must make public, at least, the information related to the acts of administrative management with economic or budgetary repercussions indicated below" such as "the remuneration received annually by the senior positions and maximum managers of the entities included in the scope of the application". Its scope includes precisely political parties.

Letter sent by the Transparency Council to the PP.

The Council of Transparency and Good Governance, an independent body, sent in March of this year a formal communication to the Popular Party, to which this newspaper has accessed. In the letter, it was reported that it had "received a letter in which it points out deficiencies of information on the website of this political party in relation to the publication regarding the remuneration of the top leaders in the terms referred to in Law 19/2013, of December 9, of Transparency, Access to Public Information and Good Governance". And that, once consulted its website, "such information has not been identified" and was brought to its attention "for the purposes it deems appropriate". The document sent by the Transparency Council responded to a complaint from the newspaper Público, which found that the PP did not publish on its website the salaries of its top leaders months ago and advanced the response of the independent body. This newspaper has contacted the Feijóo team to know if they noticed such a notice and their assessment. At the moment it is waiting for his response.

The Government spokeswoman, Isabel Rodríguez, has charged in an interview, this Wednesday, in Castilla-La Mancha Television, against Feijóo for these facts: "This man still sits today in an office paid with black money, convicted of corruption. Apart from this, public officials have obligations, we have to comply with the rules. There is a transparency law and a regulation of the Senate, and he should have declared that he charges from the Popular Party. And he has not expressed it until a few days ago, and despite having expressed it, he still does not show it. What don't you want to tell us?"

It receives every afternoon the bulletin Diario de elecciones, with the analysis of Ricardo de Querol, deputy director, and Luis Barbero, editor-in-chief editor.

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