Spain's new right-wing mayors up their wages as soon as they reach office

Newly elected right-wing mayors and local councillors across Spain have increased their salaries soon after getting into office. Following huge gains for the Spanish right in May's local and regional election results, some Popular Party (PP) and far-right Vox politicians have seemingly decided to make pay rises a priority almost immediately after getting their new jobs.

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For many of them, this comes after pledges to cut public spending and downsize departments in order to save public money were made on the campaign trail.

The eye-opening pay increases, however, have generated considerable coverage in the Spanish press, especially as they have come so soon after local elections. In some parts of Spain, negotiations between PP and Vox to govern town halls have only recently concluded.

Mayor of Marbella Ángeles Muñoz, for example, has increased her salary to a staggering €92,928 a year - more than Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who receives €90,010, and that of the vice presidents and government Ministers.

Muñoz, who is certainly no stranger to controversy, is seemingly recouping the salary she lost after being ousted from the PP lists for the upcoming Senate elections following repeated scandals including the prosecution of her husband and stepbrother on drug trafficking charges.

Her previous salary as mayor, in 2015, was €54,948.03, and her self-imposed pay rise now makes her the highest paid mayor in Andalusia.

But it's not just in bigger cities where newly elected mayors and councillors are dishing out pay rises. In Torrelodones, a small town of around 23,000 just a short drive from Madrid, the local government have boosted their own salaries by a staggering 137 percent - a measure that is "absolutely essential", according to the new administration.

The local council, jointly ruled by PP and Vox, has increased their salaries from a combined €484,509 to €1.15 million. And this comes despite the fact that in the campaign they promised to end the "superfluous expenses" of the previous council.

In Nàquera, Valencia, the Vox Mayor has increased salary by €13,000, going from the €31,999 per year that the previous mayor received to the €45,000 that he will be paid - in a town of just 7000 inhabitants. 

The right-wing coalition in the Valencian village has also made headlines after agreeing to remove the LGTBI flag from public buildings and getting rid of the term 'male violence' in official council meetings and institutions.

Local Valencian press has also reported that the Vox mayor in Nàquera, Iván Expósito, has also left the six opposition councillors without financial allowances, which in practice means opposition parties will be limited in the extent to which they can properly scrutinise the council.

In Yebes, a tiny town of 1,700 people in Guadalajara, the PP mayor and Vox deputy mayor have also both increased their salaries. The PP Mayor gave himself a 32 percent pay rise, while the Vox deputy increased his pay by 51 percent, meaning that they now  earn €46,463.90 per year - just 12 cents below the legal maximum allowed for municipalities of up to 5,000 inhabitants.

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Both had previously campaigned on a promise to end government "waste."

In the Mallorcan municipality of Sant Llorenç, the new PP council has decided to take the money used to pay eleven councillors and split it up between seven PP councillors. New PP mayor Jaume Soler will now earn €52,272 a year, 15 percent more than his predecessor, and councillors will receive salaries of €33,323 whereas their predecessors got €22,000.

In Macael, a town in Almería of just 5,500 people, the new PP mayor Raúl Martínez Requejo has increased his salary by €8,000 a year.

News of these pay rises come as the election campaign for Spain's general election on July 23rd heats up. PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who is known as a fiscal conservative, has also promised to cut and merge some government departments in order to make savings.

The pacts made between PP and far-right Vox at the local and regional levels across the country has made many in Spain uncomfortable, and like the self-imposed pay rises many newly elected mayors on the Spanish right have given themselves, could become more of an issue as the campaign intensifies. 

Feijóo has so far been reticent to say whether or not his party will make a formal pact with Vox if his party wins the general election in July, but polling shows that the PP will likely have to rely on the far-right party in some way in order to govern and the number of agreements made at the local level suggest it is more than possible.