Political 'movements' eligible for subsidies
Thursday 26 November 2009
Political movements with no members, such as Geert Wilders anti-Islam PVV, will soon be eligible for government subsidies, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Thursday.
At the moment, parties must have at least 1,000 members to qualify for state cash, but that condition is set to disappear, the paper says.
If the PVV achieves the electoral success opinion polls suggest, it will be able to claim around €1m out of the total budget of €15m.
However, in order to qualify for the funding, movements like the PVV will have to be transparent about political donations, something which Wilders has consistently refused to do.
Home affairs minister Guusje ter Horst wants all donations of over €750 to be made public. The ceiling is currently just over €4,500. She also wants to introduce a maximum gift of €50,000.
© DutchNews.nl
Readers' comments
Comments have been closed for this article.
|
Monday: Between 2º and 5º with light snow or sleet. Around zero at night. Similar Tuesday
I find that something is not quite right with this picture, to force names of people to be public knowledge that donate with their own hard earned money to whom they choose to donate to with their own money. That should be none of the governments business regardless of how one feels about a certain political group. All political parties should have the same right to government funding as well as private donations from private citizens that wish to keep their donatiion private if they choose to do so.
By sandra | November 27, 2009 8:53 AM