Municipality in Barcelona: Manuel Valls’s party is sanctioned for illegal campaign financing

The party created by Manuel Valls was recently sentenced to pay a hefty fine when he tried to win in Barcelona City Hall in 2019. The former head of the French government then created a platform called Barcelona per el Canvi (Barcelona for change). If the gamble ultimately fails, she is still pursued by the former executive director of the Socialist Party.

Recently, the Court of Accounts sanctioned this party in the form of a fine of 275,000 euros for acts of illegal campaign financing, noted, in particular, our colleagues from Le Monde. There are two claims against the party: exceeding the spending ceiling up to 25,000 euros. As well as billing for certain expenses to third parties, which is strictly prohibited. These accounts will represent a total of 250,000 euros. These discrepancies have already been noted by the Spanish Court of Accounts in 2021.

Manuel Valls did not appeal

As stated in the document published by our colleagues, this is the most severe sanction imposed on the party in this election. The same document states that Manuel Valls did not appeal to the Supreme Court. The Barcelona per el Canvi party, according to Le Monde, was replaced after the municipal elections by a formation called the Valents.

Re-elected as a deputy in his constituency Essonne under the label of the majority after losing the primaries to the left in the presidential election, Manuel Valls sat briefly in the Palais Bourbon. In 2018, he announced his decision to step down from his post to try to run for mayor of Barcelona. He ultimately failed with only 13% of the vote. Manuel Valls finally tried to become an MP again, having received an investiture among the French abroad. But the outgoing MP Stephan Voyetta did not hear this and decided to keep the dissident candidacy. Ultimately, the latter won, and Manuel Valls was eliminated in the first round.