MPs decide to keep spending secret, parties get €27m from state

A majority of MPs last month decided to keep secret details about how they spend a combined €27m in subsidies to run their parliamentary operations, the Volkskrant reports on Saturday.


The money is given to the parliamentary parties to pay for offices and administrative support.
MPs decided to keep their spending secret because of fears that there could be a scandal similar to the British parliamentary expenses scandal of 2009, the paper says. The parties also discussed how to deal with media inquiries about the cash. The paper bases its claims on political sources.
Socialist underspend
Not all parties agreed with the decision and the Socialists published their parliamentary accounts last month. This showed the SP had underspent its budget by €2m over the past three years.
The Labour party (PvdA) published its accounts on Thursday which showed all its money was spend. D66, GroenLinks and ChristenUnie have now pledged to publish as well.
The ruling VVD and Christian Democrats plus alliance partner PVV have so far not agreed to come clean.
The total subsidy works out at approximately €165,000 per seat in parliament.

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