Government to cut political parties' state funding
Political parties' state funding will be cut by 10 percent under the 2025 budget, said Prime Minister Kristen Michal (Reform) on Thursday.
"It affects political parties in the same way as it affects everyone else. There is no other way," Michal said at the government's weekly press conference while speaking about budget cuts.
Minister of Regional Affairs Piret Hartman (SDE) explained that as the money is an operating subsidy, it will also be subject to cuts.
Michal said parties' capacity for substantive activities may decrease.
"There are political parties, usually the more right-wing parties, that are able to get more support from donors. They will probably find it somewhat easier to compete with the center and the more left-wing parties," the prime minister said.
Hartman said the cut will also have an impact on parties' activities.
"It certainly does. How exactly the 10 percent will affect them, I cannot comment here today. On the one hand, we need to look at what the possibilities are for spending less, but of course, we also need to find different sources of revenue. We must seek this balance point together in society. If everyone saves money, it is clear that the political parties must also review their expenditure," she told the media.
On Wednesday, Minister of Education and Research Kristina Kallas (Eesti 200) said on Vikerraadio's "Uudis +" that political parties's funding must be cut.
"It cannot be that we cut services and subsidies for the population but do not cut support for political parties. Surely the same kind of 10 percent cut must be made to the funding of political parties," she said.
It is currently planned to allocate parties the same amount as last year, €5.19 million. A 10 percent cut would drop this to €4.67 million.
Reform would be the most affected, as the largest party receives the most funding – €1.9 million. It would lose €190,000.
EKRE would lose €86,000, Center €81,000, Eesti 200 around €71,000, SDE €46,000 and Isamaa €40,000,
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Editor: Aleksander Krjukov, Helen Wright