Because of the acceptance of improper donations, the Bundestag administration has imposed fines on four parties. According to the SPIEGEL, the Left is to pay 90,168.15 euros, the SPD 44,234.01 euros and the Greens 17,063.97 euros. The CDU comes with a fine of 93.96 euros.
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Background of the sanctions are illegal contributions in the federal election year 2013. The trigger was an audit of the Federal Court of Audit, which had examined the expenses of the political groups of the then represented in the Bundestag parties.
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The tax financed funds may not be used by law for party tasks, but only for parliamentary work. However, according to the Court's report, all political groups had used their funds in part "unlawfully for party functions": the Union and the Greens in "individual cases", the SPD and the Left in "several cases" and the FDP "to a considerable extent". The AfD was not yet in parliament in 2013.
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The Court of Auditors report has been audited by the Bundestag administration since 2017. At the end of September this year the investigations were completed and the sanction notices were sent to the parties.
In many cases, the Bundestag administration came to a completely different assessment than the Federal Court of Audit. Accordingly, numerous penalties were incurred. The FDP, which, according to the Court of Auditors, had most abused tax money for party purposes, remained completely impunity.
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