In the midst of its attempt to once again become the hegemonic party of the alternative left to the PSOE, in continuous struggle with Sumar, Podemos faces a critical economic situation. The purple party is already paying for its electoral bankruptcy, accentuated in 2023, but in which it has been installed since 2019, when it achieved its worst results at the national level.
The party now led by Ione Belarra admits a total collapse in its accounts, having lost 12 million euros in public income in just five years, up to 14 if private income is added. Thus, its electoral disaster, in turn, becomes an economic one. The party received up to 18.4 million euros in public income in 2018, which would be its last best result in terms of revenue from public subsidies, coinciding with its political strength. At that time, Podemos had up to 71 deputies corresponding to the 2016 general elections – its best result at the state level – and had a total of 168 deputies spread throughout the territory, not including representatives in the Cortes Generales. They received up to 18.1 million from subsidies for operating expenses, which are what the party receives for its representation in Congress and the rest of the autonomous parliaments and in town councils. In addition, they received almost 103,000 euros in contributions from institutional groups, which are those made to the party by political groups represented in parliament. They received almost 250,000 euros in subsidies for security expenses. The purple party had also achieved similar results in the accounts for 2016 and 2017, when it had 169 deputies in the territories.
These are numbers that Podemos is not able to achieve today. According to the balance sheet presented for the 2023 financial year, the purple party has only collected 6.1 million euros in public revenue, a bleak picture that corresponds to its electoral failure. The purple party ended 2023 confirming its debacle at the polls, after being reduced to the bare minimum in most communities where regional elections were held. They have gone from 168 deputies to just 33 at the end of 2023. In 2024 they would lose their representation in the Basque Country, Catalonia and would save face by obtaining two MEPs in the European Parliament, an indicator that has raised their morale to try to rebuild their project for the future, alone.
The regional and municipal elections of 28M were the last in which Podemos was presented as the predominant formation within the coalition of left-wing parties before the birth of Sumar. The purples then disappeared from Madrid and Valencia and left all governments except that of Navarra. An electoral hemorrhage that also translates into economic detriment. The party has lost up to 2.7 million euros through public income, which could have been alleviated if the 2023 electoral cycle had not meant the purple decline. Specifically, in annual subsidies for operating expenses, the party has lost 1.2 million euros in one year and 62,637 euros in security expenses, which come from the Ministry of the Interior for the elections held in 2023. In addition to the loss of regional deputies, there is, therefore, the loss of contributions from institutional groups – as some of them disappear, such as in Madrid or Valencia, and their representation in other communities and municipalities decreases. 1.3 million stop receiving from the groups, in this sense.
In total, the party has received 2.5 million euros in electoral subsidies in 2023 through this means, while it has spent up to 5.2 million on operations for electoral activity, therefore, the savings or dissavings result is negative, up to 2.7 million. From the general elections of June 23, when they went in coalition with Sumar, they received 1.1 million from the Ministry of the Interior, which, despite the break with Sumar, they continue to keep.
The reduction in public income is also reflected in the loss of half of its income from private sources. In other words, contributions from its members have also been reduced, although to a lesser extent, which shows that the party still has a committed membership. In 2018, it received four million euros from membership dues or contributions from public officials. Now, that figure is 2.3 million euros. Special attention must be paid, however, to the reduction in income from Podemos’ public officials. All leaders are obliged to donate to the party a certain amount according to their responsibility. In 2018, the party obtained 2.8 million euros through this means, and today it only collects 986,689.61 euros in this way.
It is relevant to analyse the loss of private income in one year, coinciding with its fight with Sumar. Compared to 2022, they have postponed half a million euros. Specifically, membership fees have been reduced by almost 60,000 euros in one year, while membership fees have decreased by almost 40,000 and voluntary fees by 21,119 euros. The loss in terms of contributions from political positions is greater, for which the party stops receiving 676,095 euros. And Podemos still counted in 2023 on the contributions of its 26 national deputies until the general elections of 2023.
Something that has had a considerable influence on Podemos’s cash flow, which has gone from having almost 25 million euros to just 15.1 in these five years. In one year, the party’s assets have decreased by almost four million euros. In fact, they have closed the 2023 balance sheet with losses of 4.6 million that may still become more pronounced in the next balance sheet due to their minimal institutional presence at present.
The party, however, has been considerably reducing its expenditure, also due to the same loss of electoral influence. In 2018, the year on which this article is based to analyse the purple accounts, the purples showed expenses of 19.4 million. Now, they have managed to reduce this item to 10.1 million. In 2018, the purples spent 13.1 million euros on personnel expenses; salaries, wages and social security contributions. Now, they only spend 5.4 million, and this is because in the summer of 2023 the party fired 70 percent of its workers due to its political failure. The year in which the purples recorded the least expenses was in 2015, when they still did not have the electoral income from that year’s elections and had not made a large outlay on hiring staff.