Funding of political parties in Germany

Dr. Heike MertenInstitute of German and International Law

of Political Parties and Political Party Research

Funding of political parties in Germany

1. Introduction2. Legal bases3. Funding of parties

a. Public Fundingb. Private Funding

4. Administration, Disclosure and Enforcement5. Actual Funding of the Parties6. Reformdiscussion7. Outlook

Legal Bases

Federal ConstitutionArticle 21 [Political parties](1) Political parties shall participate in the formation of the political will of the

people. They may be freely established. Their internal organisation must conform to democratic principles. They must publicly account for their assets and for the sources and use of their funds.

(2) Parties that, by reason of their aims or the behaviour of their adherents, seek to undermine or abolish the free democratic basic order or to endanger the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany shall be unconstitutional. The Federal Constitutional Court shall rule on the question of unconstitutionality.

(3) Details shall be regulated by federal laws.

The Law on Political Parties (Party Law) Art. 1 - 38

Funding of parties

Public FundingArticle 18 Principles and Volume of State Funding(1) The parties shall receive funds as a contribution towards the funding of the duties generally

incumbent upon them under the Basic Law. The allocation of state funds shall depend on the success a party achieves with the voters in European, Bundestag and Landtag elections, on the sum of its membership and deputy fees and on the amount of money it obtains from donations.

(2) The maximum total volume of state funds which may be paid to all parties each year shall be 133 million euros (absolute upper limit).

(3) Under the state partial funding program, the parties shall each year receive:1. 0.70 euro for each valid vote cast for its list or2. 0.70 euro for each valid vote cast for a party in a constituency or polling district whose list was not approved in a Land, and3. 0.38 euro for each euro which it has obtained as bestowals (membership fee, deputy fee or rightfully obtained donation); in this context, only bestowals up to 3,300 euros per natural person shall be taken into account.Notwithstanding Numbers 1 and 2 above, the parties shall receive 0.85 euro for every vote they obtain up to four million valid votes.

Funding of parties

Private Funding- Donations from natural persons- Donations from legal entities- Membership fees- Deputy fees - Income from entrepreneurship and participations- Income from other assets- Income from organized events, distribution

of printed material and publication

Actual Funding of the Parties

• Grafik einfügen

Administration, Disclosure and Enforcement

• Annual financial statement of all parties• Art. 24 Party Law prescribes the scope and structure

of such statement• The statement must be audited by an independent

auditor• The President of the parliament publishes it as a

printed paper • The President of the parliament examines wether the

statement complies with the law

Reformdiscussion in Germany

donations from legal entities sponsoring media ownership associations of voters (Wählergemeinschaften) financial relations between the political parties

foundations (Stiftungen) and parliamentary groups