Vox demands public money to cover the interest on the loan it requested from Orbán's bank

The far-right party Vox has taken to the courts a striking claim even for a party that builds a good part of its discourse against public spending. According to ‘El País’, the party led by the far-right Santiago Abascal wants the State to pay it the more than 1.7 million euros it paid in interest for two electoral loans contracted with Magyar Bank Holding (MBH), a Hungarian entity linked to the political and economic circle of Viktor Orbán.

The loans amounted to 6.5 and 7 million euros and served to finance the campaigns for the 2023 general elections and the 2024 European elections. Vox has already repaid them, but now demands that public coffers assume the cost of interest that reached 11%, a rate much higher than what the party itself obtained from Spanish banks. In its accounts, there are loans with entities such as Banco Santander, BBVA, or Abanca with much lower rates.

The State they attack, now as payer

The thesis of the far-right Vox is to hold the State responsible for the financial overcost. The party argues that the delay in the payment of electoral subsidies forced it to resort to more expensive financing and estimates the amounts still pending collection for previous campaigns at more than 3.1 million. The argument clashes with the party's usual narrative against public aid, subsidies, and what the far-right itself often calls 'handouts'.

The case was already surrounded by opacity from the outset. Vox did not initially reveal the name of the Hungarian bank and only did so after the Court of Accounts demanded information from it. The auditing body also requested data from MBH Bank, but the entity did not respond to its requirements. The complaint for alleged illegal financing was eventually dismissed by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, among other reasons, because the loan had been repaid and the interest rate was higher than the market rate, which moved away from the idea of a disguised donation.

The party's accounts also come with another uncomfortable figure. Since 2020, Vox has transferred 13.9 million euros to the Disenso Foundation, chaired by Abascal indefinitely and converted into one of the great ideological platforms of the Spanish far-right. Last year alone, it was another two million and, between January and June of this year, one million more. The party closed 2025 with profits after several years of losses and will formally approve its accounts this Saturday in Madrid.