In the Bundestag election year, companies, associations and individuals are generous with large donations to the parties. However, they do not benefit equally from it.
The election year brought the parties represented in the Bundestag a real blessing from large donations – albeit with major differences. Together they received almost exactly 12.4 million euros from these donations of more than 50,000 euros.
For comparison: in the previous year, companies, business associations and individuals only donated a good 2.2 million euros, as the publication by the German Bundestag shows.
Classically, such large donations increase significantly in the years of the Bundestag election. However, this time they were particularly lush. For example, the income of the Bundestag parties from this source in the 2017 election year was around 6.59 million euros.
FDP «leads» in front of the Greens
This time the FDP had a particularly large number of patrons, with revenues of around 4.43 million euros. They are followed by the Greens with 3.44 million and the CDU with just under 3.39 million euros. The Union as a whole – i.e. CDU plus CSU – comes to around 4.26 million euros. All other parties are far behind. The SPD only made three donations totaling 225,001 euros, the Left received 55,000 euros once. The AfD came out completely empty.
Political parties in Germany are mainly financed by membership fees, money from the state and donations. The parties must immediately report individual donations of over 50,000 euros to the President of the Bundestag, who must publish the information promptly. Donations that exceed EUR 10,000 per year must be recorded in the statement of accounts with the name and address of the donor and the total amount. It is forwarded to the President of the Bundestag.
Criticism from Transparency International
The organization Transparency International criticized the existing regulations. “We are of the opinion that donations to the parties should be disclosed with a much lower threshold,” said the chairman of Transparency Germany, Hartmut Bäumer, the German press agency. “The borders have to go down.” Donations should have to be published immediately from 2000 euros.
It was noticeable this year: The two largest donations, namely 1.25 million euros and one million euros, went into the account of the Greens. Behind are the FDP and CSU, each with a donation of 750,000 euros. The FDP also has the highest number of individual donors.
For the Union, the relatively high income is just a drop in the ocean. Because of their historically poor performance in the Bundestag election in September, the CDU and CSU will receive considerably less income than before from state party funding. This is calculated, among other things, according to the votes cast. In addition, the CDU incurs high expenses for the election of its new party chairmen Armin Laschet and Friedrich Merz at federal party conferences last and next January and the membership survey that has just taken place.
Source From: Stern
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