The Federal Constitutional Court has declared an increase in state party funding by 25 million euros to be void.
Karlsruhe - The parties are entitled to less money from the state than before: the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe declared on Tuesday (January 24) that the increase in the upper limit for state subsidies was unconstitutional and void.
The Bundestag decided to increase this from 165 to 190 million euros in 2018 with the votes of the Union and the SPD.
The Greens, FDP and Left considered Plus for parties to be disproportionate
With the decision of the constitutional judges, an application by the parliamentary groups of the FDP, Greens and Left Party was successful - all opposition parties at the time.
216 MPs had the constitutionality of the increase checked.
Even if they benefit from the increase themselves, they considered the plus disproportionate and feared the impression of self-service.
With votes from the Union and the SPD, the Bundestag had decided on the whopping increase at the time.
The parties justified this primarily with the growing challenges posed by digitization such as hackers, fake news and data protection on the Internet.
In order to be able to cope with such tasks, more money is needed.
Judgment of the Constitutional Court on party financing: It was about the state share
How much money parties get from the state depends primarily on how they performed in the last election.
State funds are adjusted to the rate of inflation, so they rise regularly.
Other sources of income include membership fees and donations.
An absolute cap on government sub-funding sets the amount paid to all eligible parties.
This is what the proceedings in Karlsruhe were about.
Last year, after an adjustment of 2.5 percent, it was 205,050,704 euros.
Since a ban on predominantly state party financing is derived from the Basic Law, the state share must not exceed that generated by the parties themselves - for example through membership fees and donations.
This is the relative upper limit.
Party financing: AfD also complained - verdict is imminent
The AfD had also sued in Karlsruhe.
She criticizes that the grand coalition passed the law in such a short time that there was no time for opposition work.
The court plans to announce its verdict at 2 p.m.
(AFP/dpa)