The members of the Senate Board, from PP and PSOE, had agreed to add to their salary from now on the supplements for holding positions in the Chamber committees, so their salary increased between 13% and 8% -about 16,600 and 11,000 euros gross per year-, Europa Press reports. The news, revealed in the middle of Christmas Day, generated a deep debate and from Genoa, early in the afternoon, they reported that they would rectify this measure in the Senate, where they have an absolute majority. “At the next meeting of the Board this decision will be annulled,” they stated from the popular leadership.
Until now, the supplement for being a member of the Board was incompatible with the supplement received by positions in the commissions, with the only exception of the president. However, the first vice president, Javier Maroto, proposed at the Board meeting on December 5 to eliminate the incompatibility and obtained unanimity, as recorded in the minutes. They argue that the president and the parliamentary groups could previously combine their supplements for this performance with the supplements for having a position on the commissions. Thus, the members of the Board (4 from the PP and 3 from the PSOE) added to their salary the supplement for having a commission position, increasing their salary between 11,000 and 16,600 euros per year.
Until now, the vice presidents of the Senate, the popular Javier Maroto and the socialist Guillermo Fernández Vara, were receiving a total of 9,674.99 euros per month, in fourteen payments, which translates into 135,449 gross euros per year. The breakdown of this salary has to do with the identical allocation for all senators (3,173.83 per month) and the complements as vice presidents of the Chamber. To this we must add the 2,037.07 euros per month for belonging to constituencies other than Madrid.
Maroto would have added 1,186.09 euros for being PP spokesperson on the Regulations Commission, leaving him with a monthly salary of 10,861.08 euros (152,054.26 euros gross per year). Vara added the complement of 790.72 euros to his salary for being vice-spokesperson of the PSOE in the Health Commission, receiving 10,465.71 euros per month, 146,519.08 euros per year.
As for the four secretaries, Eva Ortiz added a complement for being vice spokesperson of the PP in the Finance Commission and the Budget Commission; the socialist María Ángeles Luna, as vice spokesperson for Relations with the Ombudsman; the also socialist José Manuel Fajardo, as spokesperson in the Regulations; and the second secretary, Marimar Blanco, of the PP, for being vice spokesperson in the Interior Commission.