Merkel's CDU receives the most large donations

Germany's co-governing Christian Democrats (CDU) profited the most of any political parties from large donations in 2018, figures issued by the parliamentary administration show.

The CDU received some €850,000 ($972,267) in 2018 from a range of donors that included major shareholders in carmaker BMW. That compares with nearly €2.9 million in 2017, with the larger amount possible reflecting the fact that it was an election year.

The highest single donation, amounting to €260,000, came in July 2018 from the former CEO of the pharmaceutical company Merck, Hans-Joachim Langmann, who was also the largest donor to the CDU in 2017.

The amount received by the CDU is about three times higher than that pocketed by its coalition partner, the Social Democrats (SPD), which was given €280,000. That sum was, however, exceeded by the one large donation given to the German Communist Party (DKP), which in May was presented with around €352,000.

Automaker Daimler and chemical company Evonik were even-handed in their donations, giving both the CDU and the SPD €180,000.

Read more: Germany's political parties CDU, CSU, SPD, AfD, FDP, Left party, Greens - what you need to know

Regional interests

One special case was four donations made by the Danish government to the Südschleswigsche Wählerverband (South Schleswig Voters' Association, SSW), a political party in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein that represents the Danish minority in the state. In total, the party received around €477,000.

The Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), which forms a bloc at national level with the CDU, received a slightly early Christmas present from the Association of the Bavarian Metal-Working and Electrical Industries (vbm) in the form of €625,000. The vbm gave a similar amount to the party last year.

The Left Party and the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party had not received any official donations by the time the list was published on December 28. However, AfD parliamentary leader Alice Weidel is being investigated on suspicion of having received an illegal donation of some €130,000 from a Swiss pharmaceutical company. German law stipulates that donations of this scale to German parties by non-EU members are not permissible. The AfD claims, however, that the money was paid back early in the year.

Incomplete list

German political parties are financed mostly by members' fees, state money and donations. Any donations of more than €50,000 must be immediately registered with the president of the parliament and published "shortly afterwards."

However, the figures that have been released by the parliamentary administration do not show the full extent of donations given to parties, as the association Lobbycontrol told the dpa news agency. It says that the main sums received will not be made known until next year, when the smaller donations are published in the parties' statements of accounts.

"Donors often make use of the possibility of splitting up their donations to avoid them being made known near to the time they are given, even though the [total] amounts are much higher than the €50,000 limit," Lobbycontrol's Annette Sawatzki told dpa.

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