How will election results affect the finances of Slovenian parties?

The Court of Auditors is responsible for the control

9. junij 2018 ob 12.22 • Ljubljana - MMC RTV SLO

Slovenia. Foto: BoBo

At the end of this year's election year, in which political parties financed a typically expensive election campaign, it is expected that balance sheets of party accounts will change considerably more than in the past years.

The Court of Auditors is responsible for auditing the finances of Slovenian political parties. So how are the parties financed? And for those parties that have entered the parliament (or came close to it) and are thus entitled to public finances, how much will they get?

Slovenian taxpayers pay around 2.5 million euros each year in total for financing the parties that get more than 1% of votes at the National Assembly elections. That's ten million euros in a single term. The Party of the Modern Centre had been entitled to 730 thousand each year from 2014, and from now on, it will be receiving 70% less, 230 thousand due to its worse electoral result. The Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) will receive 515 thousand euros a year, which is 55 thousand more than so far. The List of Marjan Šarec will receive 285 thousand euros, Social Democrats (SD) 234 thousand, Levica (The Left) 222 thousand euros, which is 50 thousand more. The funds of DeSUS, the Pensioners' Party, will be reduced by as much as 115 thousand, to 140 thousand euros.

But this is just one of the public sources for political parties. There is also money from the National Assembly for secretaries, assistants and clerks each year, totalling more than two million euros per year. Foreigners are not allowed to finance a party or a campaign. It will therefore be necessary to resolve the dilemma about the legality or illegality of the Hungarian contribution to media companies related to SDS, the election winner.

Local sources are also a substantial financial resource for the parties through municipal councils, and local elections are therefore of great importance for the financing of established parties, especially for the Slovenian People's Party (SLS). Then there are membership fees, which are relatively important for Nova Slovenija (New Slovenia, NSi), SD and SDS. These parties are also the only ones in the parliament who reported last year the names and addresses of donors of monetary contributions because the amount exceeded the average monthly gross salary. All names are well-known members of the parties. The record donor, Lojze Peterle, donated 8,000 euros to NSi last year.