Party funding in Switzerland

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The financing of political parties in Switzerland differs in two material respects from that in the neighboring countries: while Germany, Austria, Italy and France provide all the public for their parties grants to meet statutory rules on the transparency of party finances, missing in Switzerland both. So also an expert opinion from the Federal Office of Justice. Only the cantons of Geneva and Ticino had rules for the disclosure of political donations in 2011. Popular initiatives for legal transparency requirements were rejected by referendums in June 2013 and September 2014 in the cantons of Basel-Land and Aargau with around 56 percent of the vote. Even "if Switzerland does not give rise to scandals when it comes to party financing", party financing at "national level is essentially borne by around a dozen companies".

"Parties in Switzerland are have-nots". In the "militia system" of Swiss democracy, they remain voluntary organizations of citizens and as such are not subject to any public control. Parliamentary attempts to change this have so far not found a majority in the federal councils. According to Gernet, however, "it should be clearly pointed out that the exercise of people's rights (referendum, popular initiative) today is primarily made possible through 'interested money'." For Switzerland in particular, it seems important that "financially strong interest groups and social movements capable of mobilizing the parties outperform the parties in voting battles."

On October 10, 2017, the federal popular initiative "For more transparency in political financing (transparency initiative)" , which is [out of date] currently pending with the Federal Council , was submitted.

Revenue of the parties

There are no regulations or restrictions on the private funding of political parties and election campaigns. According to the statutes of the parties, they are financed from the following sources:

  • Annual membership fees;
  • Donations and gifts;
  • Income from the sale of productions and services;
  • Contributions from parliamentary groups;
  • special contributions from parliamentarians, judges and magistrates who belong to the party ( mandate tax , see: mandate holder contribution ).

It is common practice at the FDP, CVP and SVP to "demand contributions to finance the election campaign" from the candidates for the national parliament, regardless of whether they are contributions from their own resources or donations raised by the candidates.

"Some parties only have relatively little income from membership fees, so that they become financially dependent on interest groups." However, party funding by associations plays a subordinate role in Switzerland, "because the associations with ... their mobilization power (organization, finances), their expertise and their networks through the consultation process, referendum and initiative ... can exert direct political influence." For the FDP, the CVP and the SVP, specific support associations or foundations act as fundraisers. The SP also runs professional fundraising, which brings in almost CHF 1 million annually.

The Swiss Confederation finances neither the political parties nor the election campaigns directly. According to the Parliamentary Resources Act (PRG), however, public funding has been in place since 1970 for the benefit of members of the federal councils and parliamentary groups. This annual funding of the parliamentary groups, which serves to cover the costs of their secretariats, consists of a basic contribution of CHF 94,500 per parliamentary group and a contribution of CHF 17,500 per parliamentary group member (Art. 12 PRG). The total amount of this financing currently corresponds to an amount of around CHF 4.8 million for the federal budget.

The parliamentary group contributions from the federal budget in accordance with the Parliamentary Resources Act (PRG, SR 171.21) are considered extremely modest. Even the large parliamentary groups receive less than CHF 2 million a year. Around 2010 the basic amount was CHF 50,000 per parliamentary group; there was also CHF 9,000 per member. As recently as 1970, "it was feared that the militia parliament would become more professional, or that parties were warned about being boarders of the state."

Even if the budgets published by the Institute for Public Administration in Lausanne (IDHEAP) depict "only part of the partisan financial reality", it is worth noting that in 2006 the parties' external financing averaged 70% (FDP 94%, CVP and SVP each 75%, SP 62% and Greens 60%).

Swiss companies in particular support political parties financially, although the criteria for this and the beneficiaries are usually not made public. The big banks Credit Suisse and UBS deviated from this practice in 2012, when they announced that they would support the parties in proportion to their parliamentary mandates with a total of CHF 1 million per year each. Credit Suisse wants to support all parties, while UBS only wants to support those who "are clearly committed to competition and the market economy".

Hilmar Gernet named Credit Suisse, Novartis, Roche, Nestle and (until 2009) UBS as the most important donors of the FDP, CVP and SVP in his book (Un-) secret money . In his opinion, public stock corporations in particular expose themselves to "a considerable reputational risk if they have to give their shareholders an account of the secret party financing" with regard to corporate governance aspects.

Since January 1, 2011, membership fees and donations to political parties made by private individuals can be deducted from taxable income, provided the party is entered in the party register, is represented in a cantonal parliament or in a canton in the last elections of the cantonal parliament who has achieved votes. A maximum total of CHF 10,000 is deductible for direct federal tax; the cantons set the corresponding maximum amount for their taxes themselves.

Expenses of the parties

In the case of the Swiss parties, in addition to the expenses for the ongoing operation of a party organization (in the federal government, in the cantons and in the municipalities) and the costs for election advertising at all three levels of the political system, there may also be expenses for participating in campaigns for popular initiatives and referendums. Therefore, the total expenditure per eligible voter should be higher than in countries without extensive popular rights. In the 1990s , the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg presented comparative data for the total costs of party activity in various democracies . After that, however, the per capita expenditure on party competition in Switzerland was in the midfield, roughly on a par with the USA. Apparently, the Swiss parties compensate for the additional costs of direct democracy by using resources sparingly in other areas (for example in the nationwide, full-time party apparatus).

The total budget of the federal FDP in 2008 was CHF 3,073,000. The annual budget of the Federal CVP in the (non-election) years 1998 and 200 was CHF 2.1 to 2.4 million, in the 1999 election year it was CHF 3.65 million. The nationwide election campaign caused additional costs of around CHF 1.5 million for the CVP. For 2011, some federal parties named their election campaign budgets: CVP CHF 3 million, SP CHF 1.2 million and the Greens CHF 120,000. "FDP, SVP and BDP made no information". As early as 1987, around 7.5 million Swiss francs were spent on "election advertising in the print media."

"A candidate for the Council of States in the Canton of Bern costs between 63,000 and 190,000 francs." In addition, Hanspeter Kriesi, who examined the costs of voting campaigns from 1981 to 2006, points out that "money is only decisive for votes that are on the brink". Guido Schommer, General Secretary of the FDP, thinks that the financial magnitude of referendum campaigns should not be overestimated: "Many campaigns have to get by without funds or with ... budgets of less than a million."

In dealing with the widespread thesis that the results of votes are determined by the increased use of financial resources, Hanspeter Kriese and Laurent Bernhard point out that in many cases the recommendation of the Federal Council can be decisive or that the bourgeois parties have a "natural majority" in Swiss politics.

Waiver of legal requirements

Switzerland is one of the few European countries that do not have any special legal provisions on political parties, neither for their financing nor for the financing of election campaigns. The Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) , an organization of the Council of Europe , therefore recommended in 2011 that Switzerland introduce regulations on the accounting and disclosure of donations by the parties. The Federal Council rejected this because, in its opinion, more transparency would deter the donors and sponsors of the parties and would ultimately result in state party funding.

In November 2014, the Federal Council informed the Council of Europe as a final decision that it "does not want to regulate the financing of the parties by law". The state government justifies its decision with the peculiarities of the political system (direct democracy, federalism, cantonal autonomy, political militia system) and refers to the perception of the population that "the financing of the parties ... is still largely a matter of private engagement". However, in a population survey in 2000, over three-quarters of those questioned supported disclosure of party donations. A good 40 percent each spoke out for or against company donations.

The financing of political parties and election campaigns as well as the accounting of the parties is not regulated by law at the federal level in Switzerland. However, this topic is regularly the subject of parliamentary advances, although this has not yet led to corresponding draft laws at the federal level.

GRECO's proposals are based on a recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe from 2003 and a convention to combat corruption, which Switzerland joined in 2005 under the leadership of the then Justice Minister Christoph Blocher. "GRECO recommendations are prepared by working groups composed of administrators and experts ...". Such international requirements (such as the 2011 report on Switzerland) should then be implemented by the national parliaments.

See also

literature

  • Brändle, Michael: Strategies for promoting political parties. A comparative study of party financing in Switzerland, Great Britain and the Netherlands , Bern: Paul Haupt, 2002.
  • Drysch, Thomas: Party Financing. Austria, Switzerland, Federal Republic of Germany , Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 1998.
  • Gernet, Hilmar: (Eerie) secret money. Party funding in Switzerland , Zurich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2011. Full text of the dissertation 2008/2009 on which this book is based: PDF
  • Hermann, Michael / Nowak, Mario: The Political Profile of Money - Election and Voting Financing in Switzerland , Bern: Federal Department of Justice and Police, 2012.
  • Hug, Peter: The constitutional problem of party financing , Zurich: Schulthess, 1970.
  • Weigelt, Kurt: State party financing in Switzerland with a comparative consideration of the legislation in France, the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States of America , Grüsch: Rüegger, 1988.
  • Wiesli, Reto: 'Switzerland: Militia myth and imperfect professionalization , in: Borchert, Jens (Hrsg.): Politik als Beruf , Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 1999, pp. 415–438.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Party funding: Switzerland and Sweden on the sidelines. In: Tages-Anzeiger from July 14, 2011 [1] .
  2. ^ 'Aargau politicians do not have to disclose finances', in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of September 28, 2014 [2] .
  3. ↑ Gernet, Hilmar: (Un-) secret money. Political party funding in Switzerland , Zurich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2011, p. 13.
  4. ↑ Gernet, Hilmar: (Un-) secret money. Political party funding in Switzerland , Zurich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2011, p. 13.
  5. ^ Sd Wiesli, Reto: 'Switzerland: Militia myth and imperfect professionalization', in: Borchert, Jens (Ed.): Politics as a job , Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 1999, pp. 415–438.
  6. ^ 'Political party funding: Switzerland and Sweden on the sidelines', in: Tages-Anzeiger from July 14, 2011 [3] .
  7. ↑ Gernet, Hilmar: (Un-) secret money. Political party funding in Switzerland , Zurich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2011, p. 197.
  8. ↑ Ladner, Andreas: 'The Party System of Switzerland', in: Niedermayer, Oskar et al. (Ed.): The party systems of Western Europe , Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2006, p. 398.
  9. ↑ Federal Council does not want to force parties to be transparent In: derbund.ch, August 29, 2018, accessed on September 4, 2018.
  10. ↑ Gernet, Hilmar: (Un-) secret money. Political party funding in Switzerland , Zurich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2011, p. 23.
  11. ↑ Frey, Bruno S. / Kirchgässner, Gebhard: Democratic economic policy. Theory and Application , 2nd edition, Munich 1994, p. 209.
  12. ↑ Gernet, Hilmar: (Un-) secret money. Political party funding in Switzerland , Zurich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2011, p. 45.
  13. ↑ Gernet, Hilmar: (Un-) secret money. Political party funding in Switzerland , Zurich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2011, p. 56.
  14. ↑ a b c d Evaluation report on Switzerland: Transparency of party funding (Topic II) ( Memento of the original from April 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ejpd.admin.ch 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; 197 kB) , Groupe d'Etats contre la corruption ( GRECO ), Greco Eval III Rep (2011) 4F, October 21, 2011.
  15. ↑ Schommer, Guido: 'The Swiss Parties as Actors of Referendum Democracy', in: Scholten, Heike / Kamps, Klaus (ed.): Voting campaigns. Political mediation in referendum democracy , Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2014, p. 161.
  16. ↑ Gernet, Hilmar: (Un-) secret money. Political party funding in Switzerland , Zurich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2011, p. 191.
  17. ↑ Gernet, Hilmar: (Un-) secret money. Political party funding in Switzerland , Zurich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2011, p. 190.
  18. ↑ Gernet, Hilmar: (Un-) secret money. Political party funding in Switzerland , Zurich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2011, p. 35.
  19. ↑ 'CS pays out CHF 1 million for political parties' , Basler Zeitung of March 23, 2012; 'UBS promises a windfall for business-friendly parties' , NZZ of April 25, 2012.
  20. ↑ cit. According to Daum, Matthias: 'Can politics be bought?' , in: DIE ZEIT of October 7, 2011.
  21. ↑ Gernet, Hilmar: (Un-) secret money. Political party funding in Switzerland , Zurich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2011, p. 199.
  22. ↑ Gernet, Hilmar: (Un-) secret money. Political party funding in Switzerland , Zurich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2011, p. 27.
  23. ↑ Is our democracy too expensive? In: Insights No. 39, 2004, p. 24; see also online version (accessed March 3, 2015).
  24. ↑ Gernet, Hilmar: (Un-) secret money. Political party funding in Switzerland , Zurich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2011, p. 24.
  25. ↑ Gernet, Hilmar: (Un-) secret money. Political party funding in Switzerland , Zurich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2011, p. 83.
  26. ↑ Gernet, Hilmar: (Un-) secret money. Political party funding in Switzerland , Zurich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2011, p. 23.
  27. ↑ Gernet, Hilmar: (Un-) secret money. Political party funding in Switzerland , Zurich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2011, p. 53.
  28. ↑ Daum, Matthias: 'Is politics available?', In: Die Zeit from October 7, 2011 [4] .
  29. ↑ cit. according to Daum, Matthias: 'Can politics be bought?', in: Die Zeit from October 7, 2011 [5] .
  30. ↑ Schommer, Guido: 'The Swiss Parties as Actors of Referendum Democracy', in: Scholten, Heike / Kamps, Klaus (ed.): Voting campaigns. Political mediation in referendum democracy , Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2014, p. 161.
  31. ↑ Kriesi, Hanspeter / Bernhard, Laurent: 'Die Referendumsdemokratie', in: Scholten, Heike / Kamps, Klaus (ed.): Voting campaigns. Political mediation in referendum democracy , Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2014, pp. 10–12.
  32. ↑ Markus Häfliger: 'Federal Council defends the lack of transparency in Swiss party finances' , in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of March 13, 2013, p. 13.
  33. ↑ Schoenenberger, Michael: 'Party financing: Federal Council wants no law', in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of November 12, 2014 [6] .
  34. ↑ Gernet, Hilmar: (Un-) secret money. Party funding in Switzerland , Zurich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2011, p. 79f.
  35. ↑ Fontana, Katharina: 'Criticism of party funding: Risks not seen', in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of May 7, 2013 [7] .