Party donations have increased sharply since the traffic light crash

Party finances

Party donations have increased sharply since the traffic light crash

Updated 12/10/2024Reading time: 2 min.

Party donations increased sharply after the traffic light coalition ended. (symbol image) (Source: Silas Stein/dpa/dpa-bilder)

This federal election campaign will be short and sweet – but that too needs to be financed. The parties are happy when donations come in. One of them in particular benefits from this.

The breakup of the traffic light coalition and the bringing forward of the federal election is causing party donations to rise sharply. A real rain of money has rained down on the CDU in particular, as the publication by the German Bundestag shows. The party replenished its campaign coffers with 1.952 million euros in the one month between November 6th and December 6th through large donations starting at 35,000 euros. This means that the CDU received far more than all other parties represented in the Bundestag combined.

By far the largest single amount went to a party that is not in the Bundestag: the European party Volt received one million euros from its member Thadaeus Friedemann Otto, a singer from Goslar.

Among the Bundestag parties, the FDP came in second place with donations totaling 820,000 euros, followed by the Greens with 245,000 euros, the SPD with 220,000, the CSU with 100,000 and the BSW with 50,000 euros. The Left and the AfD have been left empty-handed since the traffic light broke.

The increase in the flow of donations is nothing unusual, but is regularly observed before federal elections. In this election campaign it is possible to understand even more precisely the extent to which the parties are benefiting from this. The threshold above which donations must be immediately reported to the Bundestag administration has been reduced from 50,000 to 35,000 euros. The Bundestag will then promptly publish these donations on its website.

The strong increase in large donations can be seen in a comparison with the previous month of October: the CDU only received income of 292,000 euros, with a further 50,000 euros going to the CSU. The Greens received almost 124,000 euros. Sahra Wagenknecht’s BSW was pleased to receive a one-off transfer of 1.2 million euros. For all other Bundestag parties it was said: none.