When it comes to money, Patriotism ceases to be. Since Strache Video is: the financing of The Austrian FPÖ does not end at the border. How representative is the donation system for right-wing populist parties?
“The Austrian case is perhaps a blueprint for other populist parties,” says Marcus Bensmann from the research centre Correctiv. “The funding model is a non-profit organization, the net worth of citizens’ money, and promises made in return for the contributions.” Thus it had proposed the later Austrian Vice-Chancellor and head of the right-wing populist FPÖ, Heinz-Christian Strache, a supposed Russian Investor in 2017, without suspecting that he was secretly filmed.
Bensmann know what he is talking about His research contributed to the AfD received in April of this year by the Bundestag administration of a sanction notice, in the amount of 402.900 Euro. The explanation: The party had accepted illegal campaign assistance from Switzerland.
“Non-Profit” Party Politics
“The financing model, not the party itself is funded, but other groups make an advertisement for the party in the U.S. election campaign very common,” says Bensmann. Against the Background of the Videos with Heinz-Christian Strache, the question standing now is: “the Extent to which also sells the AfD of your country, as it Strache already had in mind?”
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The FPÖ-Russia Connection
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The FPÖ-Russia Connection
The German AfD and the Austrian FPÖ are in good company. The parties of Nigel Farage, Marine Le Pen, Matteo Salvini, Jarosław Kaczyński, Jörg Meuthen, and Viktor Orbán is making similar headlines in many EU countries, populists rights and by financial scandals in expository.
The list of accusations is long. So, a Commission of the EU Parliament is currently considering a potentially illegal donation to the British favorites in the European elections, Nigel Farage. After the Brexit Referendum in 2016 in the UK, the then Chairman of the anti-EU party Ukip is said to have illegally received more than half a Million Euro from the businessman Arron Banks.
Covert Campaign Assistance
In Germany, the organization of lobby control documented in March of this year, that is probably the AfD-politician Guido Reil and Jörg Meuthen of concealed campaign help have benefited. Party Chairman Meuthen is the top candidate of the AfD in the European elections, Reil is running as a candidate on the second list.
Initaly, the founder of the government party Northern League, Umberto Bossi, was convicted in November of 2018, due to embezzlement of party funds to one year and ten months in prison. Interior Minister Matteo Salvini’s Lega must reimburse the state an amount of 49 million euros.
Disguised Real Estate Transactions
In Poland, covered the liberal newspaper “Gazeta Wyborcza” to be veiled at the beginning of the year, real estate transactions, the PiS Chairman Jarosław Kaczyński for the benefit of his national conservative party. Thereafter, the rental income from the Kaczyński Towers in the centre of Warsaw via the Lech-Kaczyński-the Institute should flow directly into the coffers of the PiS party.
In France, a court of appeal by the end of 2018 in Paris, and the Rassemblement National (RN, formerly the National Front), decided to remove one Million euros of public funds. The party of Marine Le Pen should have certificate employment in the EU Parliament, a total of seven million euros obtained. Now the European court of justice has condemned permanently to repay € 300,000 to the European Parliament.
According to research from the French media, the RN for the EU-election in 2014 have also received nine million euros from the First Czech-Russian Bank. In the European Parliament, Le Pen continued, on several occasions, the EU sanctions against Russia should be repealed.
France’s far-right populist Marine Le Pen has made its mark in the EU Parliament as a defender of President Putin
“Completely unmanageable”
In Hungary the financing of political parties, according to insiders, “completely unmanageable” – this is also true for the right-wing populist Fidesz of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. “The parties have to submit every year a financial report, but will not be examined by the competent authority seriously,” says Bulcsú Hunyadi, a political Analyst at the Hungarian think tank Political Capital.
“It surprises nobody here that right-wing populist national interests and cynical with their own political interests is the same,” explains Hunyadi. In addition to the state party financing, there are several options for hidden funding, “for example, fundraising for sports organisations, which can be deducted from the corporate income tax”.
Many Loopholes In The Law
Expert Marcus Bensmann of Correctiv makes for creative models of financing gaps in national party laws, donations responsible, for example, in Germany: “Many parties in the Bundestag have an interest in keeping the party law is so lax, as it is, because you benefit from it. An Amendment would be urgently needed.”
In this way, organisations or individuals who advertise for parties or donations, your attention, only then to declare, if the party is informed, and a connection between the donor and the party would have to.
Best friends: Still on 6. May met Viktor Orbán, and Heinz-Christian Strache in Budapest
In Italy, the temporary abolition of the state party financing, contributed in December 2013, to enable new donors abroad. Their donations of documents, unlike domestic grants, no strict rules.
However, not only the example of Italy makes it clear: In search of money also nationalists cross the national borders. “The Strache Video shows that the classical right-wing populist movements, if you are a patriot, expressing it, and be afraid to commit treason,” says Bensmann. “This hits a core brand of the right movement.”
With the assistance of Rachel Klein, Kay-Alexander Scholz and Bartosz Dudek.