Socialists decry “intolerable” wages of PP’s De Cospedal

“Intolerable” is how the Socialists described the income of María Dolores de Cospedal, secretary general of the Popular Party (PP), who made a net 158,000 euros in 2011 according to the Official Gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, the region of which she is also premier.

Cristina Maestre, regional spokeswoman for the Socialist Party, noted that in 2011 De Cospedal “made more money than the prime minister, the speaker of Congress, the speaker of the Senate, the king or the crown prince.” King Juan Carlos in fact makes an annual 270,000 euros. Maestre also said that “while with one hand (De Cospedal) imposes suffering and cutbacks, with the other she takes 158,000 euros.”

The PP regional spokeswoman, Carmen Riolobos, defended her boss by claiming that in 2012 De Cospedal earned 59,232 euros in her capacity as premier, as legislation prohibits other wages.

Last year, one of De Cospedal’s austerity measures was to leave regional deputies without their wages. The initiative went into effect this month.

The Socialists said that De Cospedal’s 2011 income was 20 times the minimum salary in Spain, and asked “how it can be that despite earning 205,000 euros gross, she only declared 3,000 euros in income tax.” The PP retorted that De Cospedal earns less than regional Socialist secretary Emiliano García-Page and half as much as Catalan premier Artur Mas.