Social Democrats also pass IRL in donations table
IRL has more cause for concern after dropping third in the first quarter party donations list, with Social Democrats, which has for years received far fewer private donations, climbing into second.
IRL dropped behind the Social Democrats in monthly TNS Emor polls just before the 2011 parliamentary elections and has now fallen below the Free Party. IRL also lost to the Social Democrats in the 2015 parliamentary elections with a 5-percentage swing.
The Reform Party pulled in 400,000 euros in the first three months of the year, 125,000 euros more than the Social Democrats. IRL took in 265,000 euros, the Center Party 163,500, the Free Party 130,000 and the Conservative People's Party only 33,000 euros.
For comparison, the Reform Party collected 464,000 euros for the entire 2014, IRL was second with 364,000 euros. The Social Democrats only managed 204,000 euros and the Center Party 153,000 euros.
The Social Democrats pulled in more smaller donations with the largest coming from Marek Õunamägi with 14,000 euros. Six people donated more than that sum, 15,000, to IRL. Urmas Sõõrumaa, this time the most generous donor, gave the Reform Party 120,000 and the Center Party 60,000 euros. Hillar Teder, who has given parties over one million euros since 2011, gave the Reform Party 60,000 and IRL 15,000 euros.
The Social Democrats also took out a 150,000-euro loan.
The Free Party clearly pulled ahead of the other newcomer, collecting four times more donations than EKRE. Enn Meri gave the party 22,000, Aivar Berzin 8,000 euros. The Helme family was EKRE's most generous donor with Martin Helme giving 5,500 and Mart 5,085 euros. Jaak Madison and Henn Põlluaas, now both EKRE MPs gave 5,000 and 5,250 euros respectively.
Editor: J.M. Laats