Sumar plans to register a proposal to legally establish what former Prime Ministers can and cannot do, with the aim of preventing the office they are entitled to by having held that position, funded entirely with public money, from being used to develop "lucrative" private activities.
This was explained to the media in Congress by the deputy spokesperson for Sumar and leader of Izquierda Unida, Enrique Santiago, after the indictment of former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero became known.
The General State Budgets (PGE) for 2023, currently extended, maintained the global allocation for the four former Prime Ministers (Felipe González, José María Aznar, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and Mariano Rajoy) at 298,320 euros. This amount is distributed among them, so that each has 74,580 euros annually to cover the operating expenses of their former prime minister's office.
According to Enrique Santiago, Judge José Luis Calama's order "does not specify" the accusations of money laundering and misappropriation, but it is "very serious" for a person who has held the Presidency of the Government to "use state resources for any type of lucrative activity."
"That should be perfectly differentiated and, from our point of view, should be prohibited: either the former prime minister's office is used for private activities, or private activities are carried out, but you cannot mix them, and above all, you cannot use the office's resources to carry out private activities," he summarized, emphasizing the importance of clearly defining "which activities are public and which are private."
Reactivate the lobbying law
In parallel, Santiago has called for the parliamentary processing of the law regulating the activity of interest groups to be resumed, which was sent by the Government to Congress as part of the anti-corruption measures announced after the imprisonment of former PSOE Organization Secretary Santos Cerdán almost a year ago. Although the groups have already submitted their amendments to the text, the committee responsible for initiating the debate has not yet met.
The deputy for Compromís, integrated into Sumar, Alberto Ibáñez, has also spoken about the need to limit the functions of former prime ministers, arguing that they should be prohibited from "selling their phone book."
Furthermore, he has urged for a debate on the fact that it is legal for former presidents "to be able to charge for giving talks or for advising companies that can later benefit from public policies of the Government".