Four small political parties that currently have no elected representatives are taking the Belgian state to court over the legislation that governs party funding. The parties say that the law, that only provides public funding to parties that have elected member in the Federal Parliament discriminates against them and favours established political parties.
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Minor parties file lawsuit against rules on party funding
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The Flemish-progressive party Vista, the Brabant party Pro and the Francophone parties Oxygène and Collectif Citoyen argue that the established parties have granted themselves disproportionately high and overgenerous funding.
Vista's Co-Chairperson Jan Wostyn told the daily ‘De Morgen’ that the established parties' behaviour with regard to party funding is "self-serving using money from the state coffers". Mr Wostyn added that "Belgian political parties are the top of the league in Europe when it comes to political advertising on social media. They hire theme parks to organise members' days, something has little to do with the organisation of democracy".
Moreover, the four parties believe that they are being discriminated against as funding is only given to parties that gain seats in the Federal Parliament. However, the money received in funding is not used for the parties’ work in parliament, but rather for the extra-parliamentary activities. Furthermore, an ordinary citizen is only allowed to donate up to 500 euros to a political party, while the elected members of parties can donate much more in the form of a so-called remittance. For example members of of the far-left PVDA are able to donate several thousand euro per month in “remittance” to their party.
The plaintiffs hope that the court will ask the Constitutional Court to examine whether possible unconstitutional discrimination is a play here. A ruling on the case may not come until after next June’s elections.
Annual party funding in Belgium is estimated to be in excess of 75 million euro per annum.