Party financing in Austria

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The financing of parties in Austria has been the subject of statutory regulation and public funding since 1975. Although it is rather difficult to distinguish between the funding of election campaigns and the ongoing activities of parties due to the different electoral periods in the federal and state governments, Austrian law for many years provided for the parties and their election campaigns to be funded separately from the federal budget. The federal states and important local governments behaved similarly.

Sources of income of the parties

In Austria, too, parties are in the 19th century. emerged as voluntary organizations of citizens, which were originally financed only from membership fees and party donations. In the meantime, further pillars of fundraising have been added with the mandate holder fees (“party taxes”) and public funds.

Until 1975 ( Kreisky government ), income from contributions, donations and "party taxes" (= fees from elected officials) were the most important sources of income for the Austrian parties; there was no state subsidy for political parties. During the 1990s, approximately 900,000 enrolled party members contributed 15-25% of the parties' total annual revenues. Unions and business circles donated an additional 10–13%. The "party taxes" provided 10–14% and subsidies from the federal, state and local government budgets provided 48–64% of all income.

Federal funding

Austrian law distinguishes between (on the ballot appearing) seeking election party ( party election ) , the body responsible for the political daily business political party and the parliamentary group , each with different income. Clubs have been sponsored since 1963; The current basis for this is the Club Financing Act of 1985. In addition, party-affiliated organizations (including the press funding of the party media) and political academies are funded throughout the funding system, even if, strictly speaking, this extends beyond the actual party funding. The parties not represented in the National Council are also entitled to funding for their activities in the election year (reimbursement of campaign costs) if they have received more than one percent of the valid votes.

Contributions by party and type of funding
year Political party Party promotion Club promotion Party academies TOTAL
2018 ÖVP € 9,710,779.27 € 5,987,244.39 € 2,885,608.85 € 18,583,632.51
SPÖ € 8,319,876.25 € 5,474,135.87 € 2,575,920.33 € 16,369,932.45
FPÖ € 8,050,334.50 € 5,255,144.54 € 2,544,951.48 € 15,850,430.52
NEOS € 1,815,581.05 € 2,473,361.01 € 1,275,228.52 € 5,564,170.58
NOW € 1,547,996.73 € 2,005,828.33 € 1,213,290.82 € 4,767,115.88
GREEN € 481,595.00 € 0.00 € 0.00 € 481,595.00
total € 29,926,162.80 € 21,195,714.14 € 10,495,000.00 € 61,616,876.94
2017 SPÖ € 8,188,124.12 € 5,306,292.81 € 2,450,983.15 € 15,945,400.08
ÖVP € 7,347,616.88 € 5,532,338.19 € 2,387,661.36 € 15,267,616.43
FPÖ € 6,311,853.16 € 4,640,447.16 € 2,007,730.63 € 12,960,030.95
GREEN € 3,907,679.14 € 2,621,757.78 € 1,564,478.12 € 8,093,915.04
NEOS € 1,693,132.02 € 2,204,383.61 € 1,057,903.82 € 4,955,419.45
STRONACH € 1,919,411.47 € 858,332.90 € 994,582.03 € 3,772,326.4
total € 29,367,816.80 € 21,975,673.70 € 10,495,000.00 € 61,838,490.5
2016 SPÖ € 8,188,124.12 € 5,229,962.72 € 2,450,983.15 € 15,869,069.99
ÖVP € 7,347,616.88 € 5,184,532.03 € 2,387,661.36 € 14,919,810.27
FPÖ € 6,311,853.16 € 4,349,298.82 € 2,007,730.63 € 12,668,882.61
GREEN € 3,907,679.14 € 3,389,547.18 € 1,564,478.12 € 8,861,704.44
NEOS € 1,693,132.02 € 2,206,499.23 € 1,089,564.71 € 4,989,195.96
STRONACH € 1,919,411.47 € 1,700,145.58 € 994,582.03 € 4,614,139.08
total € 29,367,816.80 € 22,059,985.56 € 10,495,000.00 € 61,922,802.36

State subsidies and other subsidies

The following important information is missing from this article or section:
Subsidies from the federal states and reimbursement of campaign costs for the European elections have not yet been fully recorded.
Help Wikipedia by researching and pasting it .

Funding for parties and clubs, as well as funding for party academies at federal and state level, amounted to 194.4 million euros in 2015. In 2014, 205 million euros in funding were paid out, including reimbursement of campaign costs for the European elections amounting to 12.4 million euros. ÖVP and SPÖ alone received 63.8 and 60.2 million respectively.

Parties from cities and municipalities receive further public funding.

Expenses of the parties

For 1988 Hubert Sickinger estimated the total amount of funds spent by Austrian parties at ATS 309 (ATS) per person entitled to vote, for 1993 at ATS 375 (ATS) and for 1998 at ATS 413 (ATS) per person. This means that the spending of the Austrian political parties belongs to the top group under 16 western democracies considered in an international comparison. With an index of 2.66 (party expenditure per eligible voter in relation to gross domestic product), Austria has the second highest “democracy costs” in an international comparison after Japan (2.70).

In the case of the Austrian parties, the expenditure for a nationwide, full-time party organization was always greater than the expenditure for election campaigners of all kinds (in particular federal presidential elections, national council elections, elections of 9 state parliaments and for the European Parliament). In the early 1990s, election campaigns accounted for around a sixth for the two large parties (SPÖ, ÖVP), and around a fifth for the two smaller parties (FPÖ, Alternative).

Party funding regime

The rules for transparency and control of party finances created with the Party Act of 1975 were extremely generous. Austria joined the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) within the framework of the Council of Europe in 2006 and was examined for the first time in 2011. Influenced by criticism from GRECO, Austria decided in 2012 to adopt stricter rules. In December 2011 GRECO federal and state in Austria u. a. recommended to ensure that

  • adequate accounting standards are used for the funding of political parties (and their election campaigns),
  • Annual financial reports are required from the parties, which include all regional associations, branches and subordinate organizations,
  • the identity of all donors above a certain minimum amount is published and
  • Access to all financial reports from parties and other participants in political competition is improved.

Although prior to 2012 there were no political party spending limits or allowance limits for donations from individuals, associations or companies, there were practical limitations. This included, in particular, the additional income tax that the parties had to pay on political contributions from interest groups.

The new version of the Political Parties Act 2012 (the so-called "transparency package") contains a number of constitutional provisions that were passed by a constituent majority (SPÖ / ÖVP and the Greens as the only opposition party). The new regulation of the Party Promotion Act, passed by a simple majority, increased party support while at the same time eliminating the election advertising fee (except for elections to the European Parliament). A new regulation of the documentation of party taxes (see the German term mandate holder contribution) was still excluded in 2012 and is to take place in 2013 in the party law.

As part of the transparency package, numerous new regulations came into force in July 2012, including stricter disclosure requirements and the like. a. for donations now over 3,500 EUR. In its report on the implementation of recommendations (Compliance Report of March 28, 2014), GRECO found that Austria implemented exactly four of the total of 11 recommendations on the transparency of party finances, but five only partially and two not at all.

The " feeding " of elected officials was banned in 2008, but relaxed again in 2009, which was criticized as a step backwards, especially in connection with the telecommunications affair and the parliamentary committee of inquiry to clarify allegations of corruption .

The first statement of accounts for 2013, in line with the new regulations, can be found on the website of the Court of Auditors. Even before the publication of the first statement of accounts under the Political Parties Act 2012, a lawyer with his own law firm had expressed considerable criticism of the perfectionism of the new provisions. The main points of his criticism are the lack of de minimis limits for the intra-party grouping of individual donations to different structures to check the publication obligation in individual cases, the lack of a de minimis limit (and the possible evaluation problems) for donations in kind and an (unnecessary) duplication of transparency in the area of ​​sponsorship and Media ads.

The basis for public party financing in Austria is the Political Parties Act (“PartG”) and the Political Party Promotion Act (“PartFörG”), most recently revised in 2012 under the keyword transparency package . According to Article 1, Paragraph 1, Paragraph 1 of the PartG, “the existence and diversity of political parties […] are essential components of the democratic order of the Republic of Austria”, from which tasks and goals for the parties are derived that are worthy of public funding. Its financing includes income from membership fees, private donations, party taxes (mandate holder contributions) and public subsidies (party sponsorship).

In 2013, the Austrian parties received more than 127 million euros in funding.

In February 2018, the Salzburg state parliament decided that (small) parties will receive less funding in the future if parliamentary group members leave or leave.

In March 2019, the National Council decided to change the valorisation clause with retroactive effect from 1 January 2019. According to the law, the subsidies should increase automatically every year and not only when an inflation threshold of 5 percent is reached. An increase of two percent was decided for 2019.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For both types of intake, see Hubert Sickinger: Political Financing in Austria. Vienna: Czernin-Verlag, 2nd ed., 2009, pp. 136–182.
  2. ^ Sd H. Sickinger: Political Financing. 2009, pp. 226-235.
  3. ^ Sd H. Sickinger: Political Financing. 2009, pp. 236-265, 288-350.
  4. ↑ There are still loopholes in party funding. September 2, 2017, accessed June 6, 2019 .
  5. ^ Hubert Sickinger: Party and election campaign financing in the 90s. In Fritz Plasser et al. (Ed.): The Austrian voting behavior. Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 2000, pp. 320–322.
  6. ↑ Parliament of the Republic of Austria: How do political parties, electoral parties, clubs and parliamentary groups differ? Publication Current Topic 2013, accessed on May 30, 2017.
  7. ↑ a b Stephan Lenzhofer: The new party funding: more transparency in exchange for increased government subsidies. ( Memento of the original from April 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. jusportal.at, accessed on June 11, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jusportal.at
  8. ↑ Herbert E. Meister: European Legal Studies: Preliminary Studies for a Positive Realism - Volume 1 and 2 . 1st edition. Pro Business, 2015, ISBN 978-3-86460-266-5 , pp. 444 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  9. ↑ Political Party Promotion Act 2012, Section 1, Paragraph 3 . Retrieved October 1, 2013.
  10. ↑ Federal Chancellery: Funding for political parties (2006 - 2018). Retrieved June 20, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Parliamentary Directorate : Club Financing - E-Mail request from 20.06.2019 - 2016 to Q2 2019.pdf. Retrieved June 21, 2019 .
  12. ^ Federal Chancellery: Party Academy (2006 - 2018). Retrieved June 20, 2019 .
  13. ↑ a b Parteispenden.at: Public funds. Retrieved February 2, 2018 .
  14. ↑ Party funding: ÖVP before SPÖ largest recipient of subsidies. The December 14, 2014 standard .
  15. ^ Hubert Sickinger : Political Financing in Austria. Thaur 1997, pp. 242, 245, 248, 250, 252.
  16. ↑ The Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg has presented comparative data for the total costs of party activity in these countries : Is our democracy too expensive? In: Insights No. 39, 2004, p. 24; see also online summary (accessed March 3, 2015)
  17. ↑ Party funding in Austria. ( Memento of the original from April 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 357 kB) University of Vienna, December 17, 2010, p. 12. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / staatswissenschaft.univie.ac.at
  18. ^ Hubert Sickinger : Political Financing in Austria. Thaur 1997, pp. 257, 260.
  19. ↑ Party and party academy funding. ( Memento of the original from March 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Website of the Austrian Federal Chancellery, accessed on June 11, 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bka.gv.at
  20. ^ Evaluation Report on Austria - Transparency of Party Funding - Third Evaluation Round. Greco Eval III Rep (2011) 3E Theme II; PDF file online.
  21. ↑ For details see Hubert Sickinger: New rules for party funding. In: Österreichisches Jahrbuch für Politik 2012. Wien et al .: Böhlau Verlag, 2013, pp. 273–288.
  22. ^ Evaluation Report on Austria - Transparency of Party Funding - Third Evaluation Round. Greco Eval III Rep (2011) 3E Theme II; http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/greco/evaluations/round3/GrecoEval3(2011)3_Austria_Two_EN.pdf , p. 23f.
  23. ↑ a b Fact-Check: Confusion in the party tax jungle. meineabenken.at, November 9, 2012
  24. ↑ Third Evaluation Round, Compliance Report on Austria, adopted 28 March 2014 (PDF file).
  25. ↑ "Feeding" should be punished again. Der Standard, August 27, 2011
  26. ^ Stefan Müller: Corruption in Austria: "Nothing goes on". Die Zeit, February 23, 2012
  27. ↑ Accountability reports of the political parties on the website of the Court of Auditors [1]
  28. ↑ Suppan, Werner: 'Party financing beyond the "oligarchs" - support in the area of ​​tension between increased transparency and bureaucracy', in: Österreichisches Jahrbuch für Politik , ed. v. Andreas Khol et al., Wien et al .: Böhlau Verlag, 2015, pp. 101–110, especially pp. 104, 105, 106, 109.
  29. ↑ In 2013, more than 127 million funding went to parties derstandard.at
  30. ^ Rich Austrian parties orf.at
  31. ↑ Less funding for parties that split off orf.at, February 4, 2018, accessed February 4, 2018.
  32. ↑ National Council: Party funding will be increased annually in future . Parliamentary correspondence of March 29, 2019, accessed on March 29, 2019.

Web links

  • International IDEA Database for 2003 and 2012 (idea.int)

See also

bibliography

  • Wolfgang C. Müller, Martin Hartmann: Finances in the dark: Aspects of party financing. In Peter Gerlich , Wolfgang C. Müller (ed.): Between coalition and proportional representation. Austria's parties since 1945. Vienna: Braumüller, 1983, pp. 249–279.
  • Gudrun Klee-Kruse: Financing Parties and Elections in Small European Democracies. Austria and Sweden. In Arthur B. Gunlicks (Ed.): Campaign and Party Finance in North America and Western Europe. Boulder CO: Westview Press, 1993, pp. 178-200.
  • Gudrun Klee-Kruse: Public Party Financing in Western Democracies. Sweden and Austria: A Comparison. Frankfurt a. M. et al .: Peter Lang, 1993.
  • Wolfgang C. Müller: The Development of Austrian Party Organizations in the Post-war Period. In Richard S. Katz, Peter Mair (eds.): How Parties Organize. Change and Adaptation in Party Organizations in Western Democracies. London et al .: Sage Publications, 1994, pp. 53-68.
  • Hubert Sickinger: Party and election campaign financing in the 1990s. In Fritz Plasser et al. (Ed.): The Austrian voting behavior. Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 2000, pp. 305–331.
  • Doris Cordes: The financing of the political parties in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, rer. pole. Diss., Oldenburg 2002.
  • Hubert Sickinger: Political Financing in Austria. 1st edition, Thaur et al .: Druck- und Verlagshaus, 1997; 2nd edition, Vienna: Czernin Verlag, 2009.
  • Hubert Sickinger: New rules for party funding. In: Austrian Yearbook for Politics 2012, ed. v. Andreas Khol et al., Wien et al .: Böhlau Verlag, 2013, pp. 273–288.
  • Manuela Susanne Blumenberg: Spending Structures of Democratic Parties in International Comparison. Hamburg, Verlag Dr. Kovac, 2013.