Spanish political parties have one million unjustified members, according to the Treasury

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How many people militate in political parties in Spain ? The question, which resurfaces every time some formation celebrates a primary process or calls a consultation to the militancy, is difficult to answer. If it is attended to by the main organizations in recent years, the number of affiliates would be around 1.3 million, a figure that quadruples to what the parties themselves recognize before the Treasury .

That the affiliation data in Spain that the parties gave in public were swollen is something that has long been suspected. While the census of militancy lost weight since the end of the nineties in almost all of Europe, those of the whole of the Spanish formations did not stop growing - they reached one and a half million people, only surpassed by Italy -, as revealed by a comparative study on 19 countries published in the European Journal of Political Research .

The reality is that, at most, 287,975 people pay a fee per military in a party, coalition or grouping of voters: 0.75% of the population over 18, at the end of 2017 (last fiscal year available), according to the data submitted by the State Tax Administration Agency ( AEAT ) to EL MUNDO in response to a request for access to public information.

Until now, the only official indicator to try to measure political militancy in Spain was the statistics of taxpayers who deducted the membership fee published by the AEAT. However, this data leaves out, among others, those who do not submit a statement of income or who do not know that they have the right to deduct up to 120 euros in their income tax return.

Since 2016, after the last modification of the law on financing of political parties, every party, federation, coalition or grouping of voters has the obligation to submit an informative declaration at the beginning of each year to the Tax Agency : model 182. In This procedure identifies all affiliates along with their quota or contribution, as well as the rest of the people who have made some kind of donation or contribution, with the exception of those who reside in the Basque Country or Navarra -they have their own Regional Treasury-, data who see the light for the first time.

Although the information in model 182 also does not allow to determine precisely how many people pay each year a quota per militancy (figures include donations from unaffiliated members), it does serve to establish the maximum number of militants or donors residing in Spain. In total, there would be 287,975 individuals (excluding companies), who contributed 47,194,921 euros during 2017, according to the statistics carried out by the AEAT, at the request of this newspaper, based on the information extracted from model 182 presented by the parties and the crossing of tax returns of taxpayers.

We can, citizens and interest in politics

The data of the Treasury also show how the emergence of Podemos and Citizens has caused an increase in interest in politics. If in 2015 there were 231,671 contributors and 35.1 million euros admitted, in 2016 -year of the repetition of the generals- 250,917 people and 39.5 million were transferred, amounts that grew to reach almost 290,000 affiliates or donors and just over 47 million collected in 2017. The records of personal income tax returns confirm the trend, going from 95,186 taxpayers who filled in the box to deduct their payment to parties, in 2014, to 231,396 of the 2017 fiscal year.

Remember that we can popularize microcredit and crowdfunding campaigns as an alternative financing to banks. However, the thousands of participants in these two modalities are not accounted for in model 182 when the party returns the amount contributed (these are loans and not true contributions or donations).

To try to collate the official data with those of the formations, THE WORLD has contacted 26 of the formations or coalitions present in the Congress or in the 17 autonomous parliaments. Asked about the evolution of affiliates (individuals who pay a fee) since 2015 and the current amount, only Cs and Vox offered the requested information among the main national parties. The Popular Party declined to provide figures, United Left did not differentiate between militants and supporters (registered who do not pay) and the PSOE and Podemos ignored the requests of this medium (the PSC did collaborate).

The sum of the eleven formations that did respond accurately for at least one of the years is 174,952 members. To them should be added the 166,772 that made up the census of the PSOE in the primary schools in which Pedro Sánchez recovered the General Secretariat, the around 22,000 IUs registered in 2016 for the consultation on the coalition with Podemos and the more than 800,000 that since years ago he wielded the PP when referring to his militancy. It would also be necessary to add the 24,560 members of the PNV and the 2,463 of Unión del Pueblo Navarro (UPN) that reported the main Basque Country and Navarre parties to this newspaper.

Thus, in Spain there would be between 1.2 and 1.3 million militants, a figure that quadruples the less than 300,000 declared by the formations before the Treasury (among which, remember, donors also have no political card). Enrollees who do not pay, who left the training and were not discharged or even deceased not eliminated from the records explain the differences between amounts, especially in the case of the Popular Party.

While in 2012 the PSOE had cleared its census and placed in 216,000 the members of the bases, the figures of the popular continued up to about 870,000 recognized when the extraordinary congress was convened to succeed Mariano Rajoy at the head of the PP, last year. The primary process, for which only 66,000 affiliates were registered with the current payments, broke the fiction with which the PP was presented as the most militant in Europe.

The analysis of the accounting of the parties points in the same direction: the PSOE, with some 166,000 militants in 2017, entered 9.5 million in membership fees (55-56 euros per affiliate), more than double the 3.6 million collected by the PP last year with an official census of 869,535 members (just over four euros for each of them).

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• PP
• Spain
• PSOE
• We can
• Personal income tax
• UPN
• Basque Country
• Navarre
• IU
• Europe
• THE WORLD
• Citizens
• Vox
• Pedro Sanchez
• PSC
• PNV
• Mariano Rajoy
• Italy
• Tax agency
• Taxes
• Politics
• Data journalism

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