Party donations: The CDU receives almost ten times as many large donations as the SPD

The SPD is not only far behind the Union in the opinion polls – the opposition is also clearly ahead of the Chancellor’s party when it comes to large donations. Last year, the CDU generated 5.37 million euros, almost ten times the income of the SPD, which came to a meager 550,001 euros. All parties together are heading for a fundraising record before the federal election. This emerges from the publication of the German Bundestag.

Threshold for large donations lowered to 35,000 euros

Political parties in Germany are financed primarily through membership fees, money from the state and donations. Large donations are now considered to be amounts of 35,000 euros or more; until March last year, the threshold was 50,000 euros. The parties must immediately report such amounts to the President of the Bundestag, who will then publish this information promptly.

Together with the donations to the CSU of 631,000 euros, the Union had an amount of almost exactly 6 million euros by the end of the year. Among the former traffic light parties, the FDP took first place with major donations of 2.77 million euros, followed by the Greens, which received 957,052 euros.

BSW receives five million euros from one donor alone

The BSW recorded by far the largest individual donation of 4.09 million euros. The same supporter had previously transferred 990,000 euros to Sahra Wagenknecht’s party, so that together with a few other payments it came to 6.41 million euros, even surpassing the CDU. The AfD was the only one of the major Bundestag parties to come away empty-handed. The Left recorded a single major donation of 68,038 euros.

What is striking, however, is that with the failure of the traffic light at the beginning of November and the prospect of an early federal election, a real windfall fell, especially through the CDU/CSU and FDP. The BSW, on the other hand, came away almost empty-handed. If this dynamic continues until the election on February 23rd, then the Union will overtake the BSW.

Lowering the threshold from 50,000 to 35,000 euros is intended to create more transparency. However, this means that a comparison with the previous year is hardly possible, because at that time donations between 35,000 and 50,000 euros – as well as all even lower amounts – were only recorded in the parties’ annual reports.

Revenue for the 2021 federal election year has already been exceeded

Companies, associations and individuals are usually particularly generous in election years. In the 2021 federal election year, they gave the parties a total of around 12.4 million euros. This sum has already been exceeded, even if you exclude the amounts between 35,000 and 50,000 euros, which were not yet considered major donations in 2021.

In the 2021 election year, the FDP was the most successful in collecting donations, followed by the Greens and CDU, who were almost on a par. Back then, too, the SPD was far behind and the AfD came away empty-handed.