PP and Podemos profit from latest General Election

MANY expatriates will not realise that each political party in Spain receives a cash payment in respect of every vote it receives in a general election which is generally used to offset actual election campaign costs, but naturally the more votes you receive, the more money you make.

In the case of this latest election, both the PP and Podemos have done rather well when you compare their election expenditure against their voting income.

The actual voting for the upper chamber in Spain is confusing as some smaller rural areas are worth more ‘points’ than larger cities but in crude terms, but for every vote cast for an MP, the party receives 81c and for every member of the upper chamber 32c and for every person elected, the party receives just over €21,000.

The total amount paid by the State to the political parties is an impressive €30 million, with the lion’s share being paid in respect of those elected to the lower house.

As they were the party with the most votes and elected MPs, the PP will earn €12 million compared to the €8.4 million spent on electioneering. With a number of high profile court cases due, perhaps some of this profit will come in handy.

Socialist PSOE who had a pretty disastrous election, although they did retain their position as the second largest party will actually be €500,000 worse off whilst the other left-wing parties will also see a significant surplus when compared to the amount they reported having spent in fighting this latest election.