He had promised it during the election campaign. And, after some hesitation, it seems that the promise could be followed through: Alvise Perez, leader of the Spanish right-wing party Salf, will put his salary as an MEP up for grabs. A real lottery in which Spanish citizens can participate. On the condition, however, of providing a large amount of personal data, including their identity card and Instagram account. A request that could violate EU privacy rules, according to the detractors of the populist politician, but also according to legal experts.
Who is Alvise Perez?
But let’s go in order. Perez, a 34-year-old from Seville and a political consultant by profession, was undoubtedly one of the main surprises of the last European elections: after a brief political career in the ranks of the liberals, he moved closer to far-right movements, launching the electoral cartel Salf (acronym for “Se acabó la fiesta”, or “the party is over”) at the beginning of 2024). In the space of a few months, and thanks to his high number of followers on social media, Perez managed not only to get elected to the European Parliament, but to bring with him two other Salf members. His group could even merge with the Ecr group led by Giorgia Meloni, which in the meantime has been orphaned by the other right-wing Spanish party, Vox, which has embraced the project of Viktor Orban’s Patriots.
I’m waiting for my turn.
I explain it all at:https://t.co/5c7HwrySim pic.twitter.com/pelOCnJDAv
— Alvise Perez (@Alvise_oficial_) August 10, 2024
It is precisely against Vox, and in general against the Spanish party system, that Perez’s political commitment has focused. During the electoral campaign, he promised not to collect his salary as an MEP once elected, a gesture to reiterate his rejection of what he considers a “totally corrupt” system. The salary will be given to Spanish citizens every month through a sort of lottery.
How the lottery will work
The salary of an MEP amounts to 8,089 euros net per month, and the MP, by his own admission, has already received around 12,000 euros corresponding to the salaries for half of July and the entire month of August. Urged by his opponents to follow through on his promise, Perez first announced on social media that he was stepping back, receiving heavy criticism from his followers, only to then change his mind again, assuring that it was a joke: “You believed it, right? It’s normal. Politicians promise us everything during the election campaign, we vote for them and then they abandon us like dogs,” he said in a video on X, stressing that he was not “a bloodthirsty parasite like all the other politicians.”
The strangest elected officials in the European elections
But how will the lottery work? To participate in the draw, the leader of Salf himself explained, it is necessary to provide Perez with a series of personal data, such as name, surname, address, ID number, telephone number, email and Instagram account name. Furthermore, potential winners of the “prize” will have to accept that this data can be used “for one or more specific purposes”, which have not yet been disclosed. According to his detractors, but also according to some legal experts, the system set up by Perez could be sanctioned by the Spanish Data Protection Authority because it is contrary to EU regulations on the matter. In the meantime, there are already over 100,000 registered for the lottery.
