ELECTION GRANTS TO THE POLITICAL PARTIES IN SPAIN

The following paper analyzes the legal status of election subsidies. Therefore, it is a study of Administrative Law about one of the various ways of public finance of the political parties in Spain. The regulation of these state aids is mainly in the General Electoral Procedure Act. These grants are not regulated in the General Subsidies Act. However both of these acts describe the aids like state subsidies. For this reason, firstly this paper analyzes the legal nature of the electoral aids. Below, the main aspects of this legal regime are studied in the paper. The article examines the requirements and the obligations of the political parties like beneficiaries, also the procedure of the concession of subsides and finally the rules that determine the exact amount of the aids. The results of the present study underline some deficiencies in the legal basis that establish the General Electoral Procedure Act. In the end, the paper contains proposals lege ferenda.