An upper limit of six million euros is required by law. ÖVP and FPÖ announce that they will adhere to the cap they have decided, but did not give any numbers on an APA broadcast. According to its own statements, the SPÖ budgeted 3.5 million euros, the Greens 1.7 million euros and the NEOS – including local elections – 500,000 euros.
According to the regulation adopted in Upper Austria at the beginning of 2020, the parties are allowed to spend six million euros on the state election campaign from the deadline. For the opposition, the limit set by the ÖVP and FPÖ is too high, as it is close to that for national elections (seven million euros), in which election campaigns are taking place nationwide. There is also a “loophole” because there are no regulations for the municipal council and mayoral elections that take place at the same time.
The SPÖ plans to spend around 3.5 million euros on the state election campaign. Around half of this will therefore flow into the classic and the digital election campaign, which the Reds are strongly promoting this time around. The Greens have announced a “thrifty” election campaign, for example there will be no large posters. The party currently expects to spend 1.7 million euros on the state election battle. The NEOS have budgeted 500,000 euros, albeit jointly for the state and local elections, because they can hardly be separated. The Pinky want to disclose their income and expenses every two weeks – most recently (as of August 10th) it was exactly 315,358.11 euros in income and 217,310.37 euros in expenses in connection with the voting on October 26th.
ÖVP and FPÖ named less specific figures. There is a clear legal limit and it will be undercut, it said from the ÖVP headquarters. The FPÖ also assured that it would “safely” fall below the statutory upper limit for election campaign costs.
In addition to the upper limit to be monitored by a transparency panel, the Upper Austrian Party Financing Act also stipulates an annual donation limit of a maximum of 200,000 euros. The independent Senate can impose fines of fifteen percent of the amount exceeded if both limits are exceeded by less than ten percent, up to a quarter for ten to 15 percent, up to 100 percent for 25 to 50 percent and up to 50 percent for violations that are greater than 50 percent 150 percent of the excess.
In the last state elections in 2015, the ÖVP exceeded the seven million euro limit assumed at the time for the election campaign by exactly 339,551.35 euros. But this did not have any consequences. Because the Constitutional Court decided that the upper limit for election campaign costs, which was still decreed by the federal government at the time, only applies to federal elections. The states themselves are responsible for limiting campaign costs in state and municipal elections. As a result, a separate regulation was decided in the country.
