Membership dues account for around 3 percent of Riigikogu parties' revenues
Estonia's political parties have together collected just over €106,000 in membership fees this year, Political Party Funding Supervision Committee (ERJK) data reveals.
This compares with state support of €2.6 million over the same period, and about half that sum from donations large, medium and small.
The Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE), whose members contributed €33,722 to party coffers off 8,923 according to commercial register data, took in the most by way of membership dues.
EKRE is somewhat of an outlier, and most of the remaining parties represented at the Riigikogu took in total membership dues of between €15,000 and 17,000, January to June this year, though there are wide divergences in per member dues taken in.
The Social Democratic Party (SDE) collected €16,811 from its 4,707 members.
The Center Party took in €16,529 from its 12,300 members,
Isamaa amassed €15,955 from its 7,073 members; the Reform Party took €15,163 in dues from 9,645 members.
Eesti 200 again is an outlier: Founded in 2018, the party was paid €5,536 in membership dues from 808 members, in the first half of this year.
Parties have received significantly more through financial donations, totaling €1.3 million across the six Riigikogu parties.
This ranges from the smallest donations to the largest (in the tens of thousands of euros per quarter), while some major donors give money to more than one party inside the same quarter.
In any case, state support is the largest single component of party revenues: This has amounted to nearly €2.6 million since the beginning of the year.
Reform took in the largest sum here, €940,000, or X percent of the total.
State support is granted to all parties who poll above 2 percent of the total vote at a Riigikogu election, and in proportion to a party's representation too – hence Reform getting the largest sum, as the largest party at the Riigikogu.
Overall, it can be found that state support accounts for about 65 percent of the total income of all parties combined, financial donations about 32 percent, and membership dues just 3 percent.
The only other significant source of party revenues comes from income generated by their own assets, such as property: Though the sum here is a drop in the ocean compared with state support - €5,342 across all six parties in the first half of 2024.
The issue of membership dues for Estonia's major parties came under scrutiny after Justice Minister Liisa Pakosta (Eesti 200) told Delfi should could not remember the last time she had paid the fees. Pakosta has said she has subsequently paid them.
The major parties not currently represented at the Riigikogu are Parempoolsed, the Estonian Greens and ERK.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
Source: ERJK