Corruption and financing of political parties: the Spanish case

Abstract

Political parties play a basic role in the democratic functioning of the State. However, illegal party funding is a constant in democracies and one of the most serious manifestations of political corruption. The Spanish legislator opted, in 2015, to regulate, autonomously, a crime of illegal financing of political parties (arts. 304 bis and ter). In these articles three behaviours are punished: illegal passive funding, illegal active funding and participation in organizational structures aimed at illegal funding of political parties. Certainly, the regulation of this criminal offence means an improvement in the Spanish criminal system, due to offers protection for an important constitutional function which used to be unprotected. However, their articulation is defective by not contemplating a wide range of situations which can damage the constitutional functions of political parties such as cases which involve public funds, the illegal financing of entities closely linked or subordinated to political parties, or another ways of financing different from donations. The aim of this paper is to analyse, in a critical way, the structure of this new criminal offence and make proposals for improving it.