PL spent the party’s billion for the election, says Valdemar – 10/01/2024 – Power

The president of the PL, Valdemar Costa Neto (SP), stated that the party had already spent, in the first round, the little more than R$886 million it was entitled to from the billion-dollar electoral fund.

Valdemar also said that he had to use just over R$50 million from the party fund to reinforce the budget with the election, totaling almost R$950 million.

“We’re going to have a lot of difficulty with money in the second round,” he says.

Valdemar attributes the difficulty in raising funds compared to acronyms, such as the PSD, to the fact that the party is outside the base of the Lula (PT) government. Added to this, according to him, is the resistance of former president Jair Bolsonaro (RJ) to the idea of ​​asking for financial contributions from his supporters.

“We have nothing in the government. And we have Bolsonaro, who doesn’t ask for donations.”

Valdemar said he chose not to appeal to Bolsonaro because he was afraid of low revenue even after requests from the party’s biggest leader.

Still, the PL president said he is betting on covering second round expenses with donations. According to him, fundraising becomes easier when there are two applications made.

Boosted by Congress, the Electoral Fund reached R$5 billion for this October municipal election. Bolsonaro’s PL and President Lula’s PT took the biggest shares.

The division of money between the 29 parties registered with the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) is proportional to the performance of these parties in the 2022 elections.

The PL had just over R$886 million for candidacies. The PT, R$620 million. The party, however, forms a federation with PC do B and PV. The group’s total share is R$721 million.

Adding PL, PT and União Brasil, which is the third party in terms of resources (R$537 million), three parties received more than 40% of the funds.

Until 2015, large companies, such as banks and construction companies, were mainly responsible for financing candidates. That year, the STF (Supreme Federal Court) prohibited corporate donations on the grounds that economic power unbalanced the democratic game.

Starting with the 2018 elections, the electoral fund was created, which uses public money to finance candidates’ campaign activities.

The fund for the last municipal election, in 2020, was set at R$2 billion. For 2024, the economic team only proposed correcting this value. But deputies and senators protested, demanding the 2022 election as a parameter.

After pressure from parliamentarians, the 2024 value, which means double that of four years ago, already adjusted for inflation, was approved by Congress and sanctioned by Lula.

In addition to the electoral fund, the parties also have R$1.24 billion available from the party fund.

How to Sheet showed, the PL finances, almost entirely, the campaigns of Bolsonaro’s children in their disputes for the council chambers.

Bolsonaro made an individual donation of R$1,000 to Carlos Bolsonaro, known as 02. He is running for re-election as a candidate for councilor for the city of Rio de Janeiro. The PL disbursed R$1.8 million for Carlos’ campaign. The amount corresponds to 89% of the spending limit allowed for each candidate for councilor in the city.

Jair Renan Bolsonaro received R$135,100 from the PL, which represents 91% of the fundraising limit for candidates for councilor in Balneário Camboriú, on the coast of Santa Catarina.

Another member of the Bolsonaro family campaigning this year is Renato Bolsonaro, brother of Jair Bolsonaro. Candidate for mayor in Registro, in the interior of São Paulo, he received R$391,600 from the PL, also 89% of the collection limit.