Spain: nearly 280,000 euros in fines for Manuel Valls' campaign expenses in 2019
Eva Deschamps / November 28, 2022
Undeclared expenses and exceeding the authorized limit: The Spanish Court of Auditors has imposed a fine of 276,698 euros for irregularities in campaign expenses in the 2019 Barcelona municipal elections of former French Prime Minister Manuel Valls.
The Court of Accounts (equivalent to the Court of Auditors in France) has updated its "Transparency" section and added a document on Monday in which it lists the "procedures with sanction regarding the accounting of the 2019 local elections."
"Barcelona pel Canvi-Ciudadanos" (Barcelona for Change), the former political group of Manuel Valls in the city council has been fined 251,698 euros to which is added a penalty of 25,000 euros for exceeding the maximum limit of spending on outdoor advertising.
In May 2019, Manuel Valls had come fourth in the municipal elections in his hometown with the support of the anti-independence liberal party Ciudadanos, after the failure of his presidential ambitions in 2017 in France.
The Court of Accounts had noted in a report in March 2021 undeclared campaign expenses worth a total of 189,497 euros.
These funds came, for the most part, from the "Barcelona Capital Europea Association", the platform on which Manuel Valls had presented his candidacy before forming a coalition with independents and members of Ciudadanos.
Used for the election campaign, this money should have come from the coalition and not from the association, which was considered "a third party," the report said.
In addition, the Court of Accounts had also observed that the authorized limit of expenses had been exceeded, with 126,819 euros more than the authorized amount, an excess of 71.15%.
In June, Manuel Valls, invested by the presidential majority to represent the French abroad, particularly in Spain and Portugal, was eliminated in the first round of the legislative elections, a new fiasco for the former Prime Minister who has since made himself discreet.