Podemos at the center of a financial scandal that could cost them dearly in the event of (probable) elections in June. The news of some has been circulating in Spain for some time funding that the party led by Pablo Iglesias allegedly received from former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Rumors that have always been flatly denied but which today are accompanied by official documents that are difficult to deny.
To reveal the cards is the Iberian newspaper The Confidential, according to which starting from 2008 Podemos would have received about seven million dollars in order to make the party grow nationally but also to create a political force in Spain that would defend and propagate the ideals and directives of the Bolivarian movement.
This is demonstrated by a document, signed eight years ago by the Venezuelan Finance Minister Rafael Isea and by Chavez himself, which would certify a transfer of large sums of money to the Centro de Estudios Politicos y Sociales (acronym Ceps) as compensation for some consultancy for the regime of Chávez and Maduro. The direct recipients of the funds were the current leader of the Indignados Iglesias party, Juan Carlos Madero, founder of the movement who resigned following another financial scandal, and Jorge Verstrynge, a political scientist at the Complutense university. In 2008, Podemos had not yet been officially born, but CEPS is considered by the Spaniards as the embryo and basis of the current political movement.
But there is more, because the funding would not only concern 2008, but would have been distributed constantly over the years: 1,64 million euros in 2008, 2,83 million euros between 2009 and 2012. 3,7, XNUMX million euros in total, which according to the information gathered to date by the investigators, would even double.
Based on what was written by The Confidential, the document is allegedly being investigated by the Unidad de Delincuencia Economica y Fiscal (Udef, anti-corruption) of the Iberian Police which is allegedly investigating alleged illegal funding received from Podemos. The investigation does not concern only the funds received from Venezuela, but also those arriving directly from Iran for the purpose of financing the establishment and activity of the movement during its first months of life.
It should be emphasized that, according to the provisions of Spanish law, these loans would be illegal since parties cannot receive funds from a foreign country. Podemos would therefore have committed a real crime.
At the moment the far-left party continues to deny: "This news comes out on time every time the elections approach - comments Sergio Pascual of the party leadership - we have already given a thousand explanations", but the electoral repercussions of the scandal could be huge. Based on the latest polls carried out by the Metroscopy institute for the newspaper El Pais, compared to the results obtained in the elections of 20 December 2015, the Iglesias' party would have burned almost five percentage points, falling from 20,7 to 15,9%, a debacle that immediately benefits its direct rival Ciudadanos which in December recorded a real surge (it is currently at 18,8%
