Podemos loses almost 3.5 million a year in subsidies after 23-J

We can lose political power, but also economic. Ione Belarra’s party, which already announced an employment regulation file (ERE) to its employees after the 23-J generals, will stop entering this legislature almost 3.5 million euros a year from subsidies to political formations with representation in Congress, which represents practically two out of every three euros of public funding received in the last three and a half years. The distribution of resources established in the signing of the Sumar coalition grants Podemos 23% of the total items destined to cover ordinary operating expenses, security and the parliamentary group, a much lower percentage than it had with UP, where it was the dominant political force. Now, after the debacle in the municipal and regional elections on May 28 and with only five deputies in a group of 31 —half that of Movimiento Sumar and the same as Izquierda Unida and Catalunya en Comú—, the formation faces a complex stage, in which he still has to carry out the dismissal process, define the influence he will have in the new group and rethink his future strategy.

Political parties with representation in the Congress of Deputies receive public money through different channels, conditional on the latest electoral results. The main funding source is the annual subsidy for ordinary operating expenses. It is paid by the Ministry of the Interior, and in the 2023 Budgets this figure amounts to 52.7 million euros. The Interior also distributes money so that the formations face their security expenses, an amount that was around 2.7 million euros in 2022. These two subsidies are distributed in the same way: one third is assigned in proportion to the number of deputies from each party, and the remaining two thirds are divided according to the votes obtained in the general elections. Congress itself keeps a part of its budget, almost 11 million euros, to distribute among the parliamentary groups: the fixed amount that the lower house currently delivers to each group is just over 30,000 euros per month, plus another almost 1,750 for each deputy.

The reduction of 3.5 million in the income of Podemos comes from the following calculation. In the first case, the one that refers to the subsidy for ordinary operating expenses (which represents the largest item), Sumar in this legislature corresponds to something more than 6 million euros, compared to 18.9 for the PP or 17 ,6 of the PSOE. The coalition led by the acting second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, loses compared to the subsidy obtained in 2019 by the candidacies of Unidas Podemos and Más País, Equo and Compromís (7.3 million) by dropping from 38 to 31 deputies. In this section, Podemos goes from receiving 4.2 million, according to data published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) to 1.4, a decrease of 67% (2.8 million less per year). In the second case, the item for security, Sumar takes 308,981 euros and the Belarra formation would receive 71,066 euros compared to 214,237 in the previous legislature, according to the BOE, that is, 143,171 euros less.

Regarding the financing of the group that distributes the Lower House, Sumar would now correspond to 1,013,732 euros, of which Podemos would receive 233,158.40 euros, an amount almost 559,000 euros less than that received in 2020 for this concept, according to the data of the organization itself. In total, the sum of the three subsidies gives 3.5 million euros less per year.

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Other Sumar formations with representation in Congress in the previous and the new legislature also accuse the drop in resources with the decrease in deputies and the new distribution of coalition funds. In the case of Izquierda Unida, with the item of ordinary operating expenses it loses 19%, going from 1.4 million to 1,145 after 23-J; while Catalunya en Comú reduces its income by 13% and remains at around 723,000 euros. The fall of Podemos is, without a doubt, the most pronounced, although the distribution between parties in the new confluence is much more proportionate compared to UP. Compared to the more than four million that the organization then led by Pablo Iglesias had assigned in 2019 for this concept, now Movimiento Sumar, as the majority force, accumulates only 1.69 million, slightly less than 29% of the total.

After the results of the general elections and the “total or partial” disappearance of income derived from institutional representation in certain autonomies, the leadership of Podemos, in its letter sent on July 24 to the workers of the headquarters and those of nine communities affected by the ERE (Aragon, Asturias, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Castilla-La Mancha, Cantabria, the Valencian Community, Galicia and Madrid), it already calculated a loss of resources of almost 70% in State and an average of 90% in the territories affected. The party plans to close all those regional centers, whose staff total 45 workers, and reduce the 61 payrolls of its central office.

In parallel, Podemos must define its role in the new space in the coming months and there are still many details in the air. The leadership of the formation, after breaking the truce with Díaz just 12 hours after the electoral results were known, weeks ago demanded “political autonomy”, that is, their own voice, positions (such as a deputy spokesperson) and the ability to decide as well. in the negotiations of a hypothetical government with the PSOE. Some reference voices in the organization, such as that of co-founder Juan Carlos Monedero, have called for a “political conference” to be held to clarify its future strategy and also the direction of a common project on the left. But at the gates of the start of the XV legislature this Thursday and with the uncertainty still about its viability, everything remains to be done.

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