Our friends ERC have been nailed for charging kickbacks to the party from government employees who hold patronage (i.e. non-civil service) posts in governmental organizations, including municipal, county (comarcal), provincial, regional, and national bodies. Some of these folks are party hacks who owe their jobs to their political contacts, but many are actual workers who just happen to be in a department controlled by ERC. There's a devastating letter in today's La Vanguardia by a woman who was a secretary for the Generalitat, the regional government, and was renewed in her position when the Socialist-ERC-Communist tripartite took over in 2003. Then ERC hit her up for a kickback, she didn't play ball, and they fired her. These kickbacks range from 3% to 30% of a worker's salary.

This stinks of corruption, and is extremely illegal where I come from. My solution to political party financing: Let everyone contribute whatever he wishes to whatever political party he wishes. Just make sure that all donations are made public. Yes, Mr. Telefonica, you can give the PP ten million bucks if you want to. All you have to do is announce it publicly; a press release ought to be sufficient.

Oh, by the way, Convergence and Union also requires its patronage appointees to kick back a percentage of their salaries to the party. I don't know what the PP, PSOE, and Communists do.