Anti-Islam party PVV vows to resist plans for funding transparency

MPs are overwhelmingly in favour of new legislation to increase transparency in political party funding, but the PVV wants to keep its donations secret, website nu.nl reports.

The draft legislation will be debated on Wednesday and Thursday and will require parties to publish the identities of donors giving over €4,500, nu.nl says.
PVV parliamentarian Hero Brinkman says the measure is ‘anti-PVV’.
Internet
‘Say Henk and Ingrid [the architypal PVV voter] win the lottery and want to give Geert [Wilders] €5,000. Then everyone can see where they live on the internet and we know what happens to PVV voters,’ Brinkman said.
Because the PVV has no members, it does not receive government subsidies to run the campaigning side of its operation and relies instead on donations. The parliamentary party is fully funded by the state.
The PVV is thought to generate significant funding from Israeli and far-right supporters in the US.
Ceiling
The Labour party has suggested placing a €50,000 ceiling on donations and a ban on donations from abroad. ‘We don’t want any influence, or the appearance of influence, from Arabs or multinationals,’ MP Pierre Heijnen is quoted as saying by nu.nl.
But the CDA says this is nonsense. ‘If Al-Qaeda opened an office in The Hague, you could donate to them, but Bert Koenders [former minister now living in Ivory Coast] could not,’ CDA MP Ger Koopmans pointed out.
The VVD rejects Labour’s call for a maximum donation. ‘The aim is to allow voters to decide if there is a conflict of interest or buying influence,’ said MP Joost Taverne. ‘The only way to do that is to be fully open with the accounts.’