Podemos looks into the financial abyss: 200,000 euros if it does not enter Madrid

Podemos is gambling a good part of its political capital in the 28-M elections in the Community of Madrid, but also a good part of its economic resources. If the candidacy of the Podemos-IU coalition achieves 6.6% of the votes, as attributed by the CIS, it will have bridged this abyss. But, if they stay below 5% —several surveys place them right on the limit—, and, therefore, they do not win the 8 or 10 seats that José Félix Tezanos predicts for them, they will not be entitled to the 21,999 euros for deputy who will charge each group that obtains representation, between 176,000 and 220,000 euros according to that range, 154,000 with 7 seats and 5%. And this, only because of the subsidies of the seats, the starting point from which this hole can grow.

The IMOP-Insights survey for El Confidencial, however, places them at 4.7%, below the survival threshold, which would give Isabel Díaz Ayuso the absolute majority. If they pass 3% —something that is not in question today— they will have access to the electoral subsidy of 1.11 euros per vote obtained, and to the items for sending propaganda, but they will have to tighten their belts to return the 504,000 euros that they already received. their militants have lent. They aspire to raise these items up to 800,000 euros, according to their website, since they must be used to cover the costs of all the appointments with the polls in the region, also in the cities.

It is in the Assembly where the most resources are at stake: they received subsidies worth 466,000 euros in the 2021 elections, in which Pablo Iglesias won 10 seats. If they can't get in, they'll have to use their own coffers to plug this hole.. It happened after the Galician elections of July 2020, when they were expelled from parliament. Purple party sources explain that, in this scenario, they return the money to their supporters within a maximum period of 12 months.

In fact, in 2021, when only regional elections were held in Madrid, they spent 815,506 euros, according to the Accounting Audit Report of the Chamber of Accounts. In other words, they had to contribute almost 350,000 euros of their own resources. The disbursement in mailing, with an amount of 597,000 euros, was returned to them in full.

Podemos boasts of having raised 1,150,000 euros in microcredits for regional and municipal governments, well above the 698,000 euros raised in the same appointment with the polls, in 2019. But the truth is that half of that collection corresponds to the Community of Madrid. And that, in the May 2021 Assembly elections, they boasted of having achieved 576,000 euros in just 24 hours. On this occasion, despite the fact that a month and a half has passed since they opened the process, they are still far from that figure.. IU is also in the coalition, but it is Podemos who contracts these loans, and therefore is solely responsible for repaying them.

The situation is changing, but the majority of purple leaders consulted predict that Jacinto will win a seat in the Assembly. Much more worrying about the fate of Roberto Sotomayor, candidate for Madrid City Council, whom the polls place slightly below. The two-way campaign that Yolanda Díaz wants to carry out, with gestures towards Más Madrid and Podemos in the capital, and towards Compromís and the purples in the Valencian Community, have facilitated a reduction in hostilities, but the tension is evident.

The purple ones are going to spend the rest in Madrid and Valencia, and this is reflected in the objectives adopted in the microcredit campaign. In the Valencian Community they have raised 142,850 euros —they aspire to reach 195,000—, far from the 113,000 achieved for the Andalusian municipal. And a huge distance from the 45,300 accumulated for the municipal authorities of Castilla y León.

What the purple ones ignore is that in communities such as Aragon, Asturias, the Canary Islands, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalonia, Navarra, Galicia, Extremadura, Murcia, La Rioja and Euskadi, they have not exceeded their first collection objective. In La Rioja or Navarra they barely go for a third of the sum they aspire to amass, and the 45,300 euros of Castilla y León do not reach half of the objective of 100,000 euros.

Podemos prefers to look at the total figure, and claims that raising more than one million euros in microcredits shows that it is a very lively force. They do not want to put themselves on the stage, already known in different electoral events, including the two calls for the 2019 general elections, of losing more subsidies. And, even less, to think that what they received does not allow them to cover the debt they contract with their militancy.