Constitutional Court overturns verdict
Parties are entitled to less money from the state
01/24/2023, 10:10 am
In 2018, the then grand coalition increased state party funding to a total of 190 million euros. The Federal Constitutional Court has now declared this decision to be unconstitutional. With the judgment, the old upper limit of 165 million euros applies retrospectively.
The Federal Constitutional Court has declared the 2018 decision to increase state funding for political parties to be unconstitutional and void. The second Senate, chaired by Vice-President Doris König, justified its decision in Karlsruhe by saying that the legislative process did not provide sufficient justification for the need to increase state party funding by almost 25 million euros.
In 2018, the then grand coalition of Union and SPD increased state party funding by around 25 million to a total of 190 million. On the other hand, the then opposition parties Greens and FDP as well as the left had filed a lawsuit in Karlsruhe. Since the increase was declared unconstitutional and void, the old upper limit of around 165 million euros also applies retrospectively.
Parties in Germany have received state funds for decades, primarily for their election campaign costs. This is intended to prevent parties from being dependent on large donations or lobbyists to finance their election campaigns. All parties that have obtained at least 0.5 percent of the valid votes in a federal or European election receive state funding. In state elections, the hurdle is one percent of the votes. Currently, 0.83 euros are paid out for each valid vote. In addition, for every euro that parties receive from legal donations, membership fees and taxes from elected officials, there is an additional 45 cents from taxpayers’ money.
With a judgment of 1992, the Federal Constitutional Court introduced an absolute upper limit to ensure that the parties were independent of the state. The total volume may only be increased in justified cases. The Greens, FDP and Left had complained that the law to increase the upper limit was passed by the Bundestag in just ten days.
The Federal Constitutional Court left open whether this was proper. Since the law on raising the absolute upper limit has already been declared void in terms of content, this is no longer decisive. The verdict on this point was six votes to one. As for the unconstitutionality of the increase, it was unanimous.