Transparency, a donation policy of 50.5 million in 2018-19

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 26 - In the period 2018-19 the policy received donations - both from private individuals and from parliamentary groups themselves - for 50.558 million euros.

This was revealed by the Transparency dossier "Money and politics" on financing and conflicts of interest in politics.

The party that received the largest number of donations, 13.7 million euros, is the Lega, followed by Pd (9.6 million) and M5S (8.9 million).

The top three parties occupy about 64% of the total funding received.

More than a quarter of all funds (27.25%) went to a single party, namely Salvini's League.

    The main donors are the Parliamentary Group of the Democratic Party, with 2.3 million, Sinistra Ecologia e Libertà with 853 thousand euros and the Italian Left with 496 thousand euros.

The League received 437,000 euros from its parliamentary group.

"The donations made by individuals (some of whom are entrepreneurs) - explains the report - amount to 15.42% (7.796 million euros) of funding for politics, while private companies donated 5.99% (3.207 million euros). The donations made by parliamentarians represent the largest part and amount to 68.7% (34.755 million euros). This can be considered as a kind of indirect public funding, since usually a part of the salaries of politicians (which are paid by the state) comedonation is requested by the party itself ".

    "This means - underlines Transparency - that the sustainability of the system is based on the revenues deriving from members already elected in Parliament, giving them a sort of power in the parties themselves. There is an evident risk for the plurality of the democratic system, in which it becomes very difficult to be able to compete for new players ".

    The total amount donated to associations, foundations and political committees amounts to 10,001,277.9 euros, one fifth of the funding to politics in 2018-2019 (19.78%).

(HANDLE).