Between the technical debates about adapting telematic voting or the creation of commissions, reforming Courts’ regulations has shifted what to do with renegades. How to manage the rights of deputies who are elected with an abbreviation and take minutes from the parliamentary group and leave the seat is an important political background issue, to which the material part is also added.
The parliamentary groups of the Cortes are debating whether to include in the regulations of the autonomous assembly the Anti-Transfugism Pact signed in 2020 by all parties represented in this institution (except Vox). And here is one of the points marked in red. The distribution of economic resources is a way of deterring what is considered “a form of corruption and anti-democratic practice” according to the pact itself, as well as trying to prevent harm to the parties exposed to it.
Because even if money is not everything, a parliamentarian’s march to a non-affiliated group has economic consequences. Parliamentary groups receive a public money subsidy each month through two channels: a fixed channel through which six represented groups enter the same amount, and another variable based on the number of deputies making up the group. Thus, if the first part is fixed at 10,500 euros per month, the second part is 1,400 euros per MP plus another 1,050 euros for staffing per parliamentarian.
The proposal on the table is to prevent the economic resources that are part of the variable distribution in subsidies from accompanying a parliamentarian’s departure. This is reflected in the agreement signed in November 2020.
“Allowances given to political groups cannot be recognized in favor of persons who are in no way affiliated with them, with regard to economic and material opportunities; any allocation according to the concept of political group does not, under any circumstances, apply to the unaffiliated renegade,” states the document adding that the affected political group “should not, as such a group, suffer any reduction in means and economic and administrative allocations as before”. .
Placing in the statutes of the Cortes the meaning implied by the transfuguismo pact would mean, for example, that Ciudadanos did not experience any economic downturn after the departure of five deputies to those who were not appointed a year ago, and received subsidies accordingly. For the 18 parliamentarians elected after the 2019 elections, these departures reduced the monthly subsidy to the orange parliamentary group by 11,000 euros, according to education figures.
Approval of the regulation change will not change much in the economic distribution for the representatives of this legislature. This reform proceeds in a technical commission that works on a paper with the aim of reaching the maximum possible consensus. The text will then reach the Internal Government Commission, where changes can be incorporated and final approval given.
Source: Informacion
