A third of the PP senators have not presented their declaration of activities

One year after Pedro Sánchez called general elections, a third of the PP senators do not have their declaration of activities endorsed by the Incompatibilities Commission. The process is mandatory and 46 of the 143 representatives of Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s party have not yet completed it, according to official data collected on the Upper House website. Among those who have evaded the legal demands for transparency for now are the ‘number two’ of the parliamentary group, Javier Arenas, or Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s right-hand man, Alfonso Serrano. The PP hides behind “administrative delays.” And he takes the opportunity to attack Pedro Sánchez’s wife.

On the same list as Serrano or Arenas, according to official information collected by elDiario.es, are the former president of the Ourense Provincial Council José Manuel Baltar, pending trial for driving at 215 kilometers per hour; the president of the investigation commission in which they threaten to summon Pedro Sánchez for the business of his wife, Eloy Suárez Lamata; the deputy spokesperson, Alejo Miranda de Larra; who was vice president of the Generalitat with Francisco Camps, Gerardo Camps Devesa; or Lorena Guerra from Córdoba, who boasts on Instagram about her work as a farmer, but about which she has not informed the Upper House.

Other notable names are that of the former Minister of Health of Madrid, Enrique Ruiz Escudero, the Galician José Manuel Rey Varela or the PP spokesperson in the investigation commission for the ‘Koldo case’, Luis Santamaría.

elDiario.es has contacted the PP to ask about the statements that fail. Sources from the parliamentary group maintain that “information was requested from all senators, and today there are not even ten that remain to complete all the information.” Regarding why these statements are not formally approved by the Incompatibilities Commission, chaired by José Antonio Monago, the PP assures: “These are administrative delays in some document or some complementary information that we have recently requested. In no case is it about any senator who does lobbying work.”

There are not only absences in the PP in the senators’ declarations of activities. Other parties are also not up to date with their parliamentary obligations. For example, two of the three Vox senators, Fernando Carbonell and Paloma Gómez, are currently failing to comply with transparency in their activities. From UPN, María Mar Caballero. From Junts, María Teresa Pallarés. Or Aniceto Javier Armas, from the Independent Herreña Group.

Public and private incompatibilities

Various laws require elected officials to report their professional activities outside the Senate to detect possible cases of incompatibility. From the Constitution itself, which warns that acts of deputy and senator cannot be accumulated, for example, to that of the Electoral Regime, which expands the definition and establishes the cases in detail.

Thus, for example, it is incompatible to be a senator (or deputy) with being a senior government official or director of a company, whether public or private “with majority public participation, direct or indirect”, unless they are expressly elected by the chambers themselves. to occupy that position. There are more cases of incompatibilities of public or public-related positions. But not only.

The law extends to the paid private sector. “The mandate of the Deputies and Senators will be incompatible with the performance, by themselves or through substitution, of any other position, profession or activity, public or private, on their own or on behalf of others, remunerated by salary, salary, tariff, fees or any other Another way”, points out article 157 of the electoral law. And the text continues: “It is incompatible with the exercise of the Public Function and with the performance of any other position that appears in the service or in the Budgets” as well as in companies, entities or organizations “with any activity on the direct or indirect account of the same”.

The standard outlines all incompatibilities in the public and private spheres. But there are activities that are simultaneous, or that the law expressly raises as a case of incompatibility. For example, “parliamentarians who meet the status of University Professors may collaborate, within the University itself, in teaching or research activities of an extraordinary nature.” Of course, with an assessed remuneration: “the established regulatory compensation.”

Or “the mere administration of personal or family assets”, with limitations to operate with public organizations. “Literary, scientific, artistic or technical production and creation” and other private activities not expressly prohibited “upon express request of the interested parties” are also exempt from incompatibility.

Obligation to present the declaration of activities

In order to order and control the activities of its members, the chambers have a commission of incompatibilities, whose deliberations are secret. Deputies and senators have the obligation to present a “declaration of all activities that may constitute a cause of incompatibility”, in addition to the declarations of assets and income.

Upon assuming office, elected officials receive documentation to report on their activities upon being elected, and they have the assistance of a chamber lawyer to fill it out.

According to the Senate Regulations, “the Incompatibilities Commission will issue, as soon as possible, an opinion on the situation of each of the senators.” That is, all senators, whether elected or appointed by the respective regional parliaments, must present their declaration even if it is empty because they have nothing to express.

To date, the Senate Incompatibilities Commission has approved two opinions in which it validates the activities for which permission has been requested. Both have been approved by the Plenary Session (in secret session, too). The second, on May 14.

Sánchez’s “wife” as an excuse

That day, the Plenary debated the opinion, behind closed doors as usual. But the exchange of positions between the groups’ spokespersons is recorded on the Senate website. And the PP turned to Pedro Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, to attack the PSOE and try to divert attention from its failures.

The person in charge of defending the PP’s position was Senator Miguel Ángel de la Rosa, who first alluded to a “change of the commission’s lawyer” to justify the absence of a third of the statements of his colleagues. The change has not affected the others.

Immediately, De la Rosa blurted out: “The wife of the president of the Government She has to set an example, she has to start there, because she is a Spanish citizen.” He reiterated the idea in the face of criticism from socialist senator Adolfo Lander: “The citizen is seeing that Moncloa is being investigated for corruption and now it turns out that the PSOE is coming to give lessons to the Incompatibilities Commission.”

But it wasn’t just the senator. The official response of the PP also alludes to the alleged irregular businesses of Begoña Gómez that a judge in Madrid is investigating. When asked by elDiario.es, the group’s leadership concludes: “There is no one who works for the Africa Center while also holding the status of senator. Nor do we have letters of recommendation to businessmen from senators.”

Feijóo’s precedent

In the last legislature there was another case of lack of transparency and compliance with the law in the Senate, and in which Alberto Núñez Feijóo was directly involved. The leader of the PP avoided declaring the salary he was paid as president of the party. He did not do it on his website (as required by the transparency law), but neither did he do it before the Cortes Generales.

The rule establishes that senators and deputies must report income unrelated to their public office. And, among these emoluments to be declared, are the salaries as political leaders. They are not illegal or incompatible by themselves, it depends on the concept by which they are perceived. But there is an obligation to report on them.

During 2022 and 2023, Feijóo deliberately hid his bonus as leader of the PP for months. The then president of the Senate, Ander Gil, sent him a request to report the amount, after Feijóo himself acknowledged in an interview that said second salary existed, in addition to the 70,000 euros per year that he received as a senator, although he hid the data. fundamentals on said income.

elDiario.es revealed in August 2023 the real amount that Feijóo earned from the PP in nine months of 2022: 71,110 euros.