At the end of the year, the large parties represented in the Bundestag experienced a kind of late gift giving in terms of donations. After Christmas, they once again received large donations totaling around 600,000 euros. That was almost as much as in the eleven months before.
However, even this lookup does not change the fact that the income from large donations of more than 50,000 euros in the past year has literally collapsed compared to the 2021 federal election year. With the donations received after Christmas, the CDU, CSU, SPD, Greens and FDP together received around 1.36 million euros – after record income of 12.5 million euros in the previous year.
At the end of the year, the Association of the Bavarian Metal and Electrical Industry was particularly generous, donating 350,000 euros to the CSU alone – the largest single donation of the past year. The association also paid 50,001 euros each to the SPD, FDP and Greens. For the SPD and FDP, these were also the only major donations throughout the year. On December 30, the Greens also received 100,000 euros from a sponsor from Berlin.
Most of the money flowed into the CDU coffers for the whole of 2022, namely 570,052 euros. For the Greens, 340,003 euros came together. AfD and Linke went completely empty-handed with the large donations.
Political parties in Germany are mainly financed by membership fees, money from the state and donations. Individual donations of more than 50,000 euros must be reported to the President of the Bundestag immediately. You must publish the information promptly. Donations that exceed EUR 10,000 per year must be recorded in the statement of accounts with the name and address of the donor and the total amount. It will be forwarded to the President of the Bundestag.
As in previous years, the South Schleswig Voters’ Association (SSW), which represents a special case, received another 500,000 euros in 2022. The party of the Danish minority in Schleswig-Holstein is supported by the Ministry of Culture in Copenhagen with quarterly payments. The SSW is represented by one member of the Bundestag.
The DKP, which is not represented in the Bundestag, was also given generous consideration last year. The left party received the second largest single donation with 270,255 euros. Together with another donation of 80,000 euros, it generated income of 350,255 euros.
