Only the national directories of Brazilian political parties – not counting the state sections – reported to the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) that more than 280 million reais were spent to support their activities in 2021. Almost all of these resources are public money, which the legends receive through a special fund for financial assistance to political parties, known as the Guerrilla Fund.
Some of this money goes directly to legend leaders who are paid to serve as president, treasurer, director, or even pre-candidate, as in the case of presidential candidates Ciro Gomez (PDT) and Luiz Inacio Lula. da Silva (PT). According to the TSE data, updated to the end of November, during the year, spending on party personnel amounted to about 55.5 million reais.
Party bosses are among the highest paid. Jose Luis Penna, president of PV, was the politician who received the most resources in this way: 319,400 reais in 2021. Treasurer of Solidarity, Luciano Araujo, takes the second place, having received 292.7 thousand reais during this period. The bronze medal goes to the President of Promsvyazbank. Carlos Siqueira, from 283.5 thousand reais per year.
Lula, honorary president of PT, ranks 14th in salary among party leaders: 201,200 reais. Ciro Gomez, in turn, received 191.8 million reais from the PDT (Carlos Lupi, the president of his party, received 186 thousand reais). The rest of the pre-candidates had no declared expenses. Former judge Sergio Moro has already stated that he will have a salary of 22 thousand reais from Podemos, but there is no launch in 2021 yet – he joined in November.
Party leaders who hold public office do not receive party resources, such as PT presidents Glasey Hoffmann and PSL presidents Luciano Bivar, the largest parties in Congress that are federal deputies.
According to the TSE, the total spending of the party fund in 2021 was 939 million reais. This year, the acronyms will have 1.1 billion reais, not counting the 4.9 billion reais budgeted for the Special Fund and campaign finance, known as the Electoral Fund.
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