Party donations: SDE and EKRE double on previous quarter, Reform falls
Figures for party donations for the first quarter of 2020 (Q1 2020) are starting to come in, with data for the coalition Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE), the Reform Party and the Social Democratic Party (SDE).
Despite being the smallest of the three by numbers of parliamentary seats, SDE took the highest amount of donations at nearly €50,000, about twice what it had received in the previous quarter. EKRE's donations also doubled on the previous quarter, whereas Reform's went down.
Political parties also received state subsidies in proportion to the size of their representation, and this declared data has also been released for the above three, along with figures for membership dues paid in Q1 2020.
| Party | Reform | EKRE | SDE |
| In office or opposition? | Opposition | Office | Opposition |
| Number of Riigikogu seats | 34 | 19 | 10 |
| Q1 2020 donations (€) | 18,474 | 25,211 | 48,943 |
| Number of donors | n/k | 120 | 43 |
| Significant donors/donations (€) | 10,000 (Toomas Kalev) | 4,650 (Allan Rummel), 3,000 (Erki Saarman), 2,500 (Andres Meier), 2500 (Sirje Meier). | 12,500 (Urmas Sõõrumaa), 5,000 (Lauri Paeveer), 4,500 (Rainer Vakra). |
| Q1 2020 State subsidy (€) | 447,134 | 249,869 | 131,510 |
| Membership dues (€) | 14,269 | 6,517 | 4,616 |
| Receipts from party assets (€) | n/k | 2,715 | n/k |
Source: Supervisory Committee on Party Financing (ERJK)
By comparison, in Q4 2019, Reform received a higher amount of donations at €27,000 than it did in Q1 2020, whereas both EKRE and SDE saw around a doubling of donations, from €13,000 and €25,000 in Q4 2019.
Possible reasons for the changes are myriad, though the latter half of 2019 saw a fall in donations once the two elections, to the Riigikogu and the European Parliament, were over.
The next elections are in October 2021, to local government.
Figures for Estonia 200, the Estonian Greens and Richness of Life have yet to be published.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
