German (political) parties get record state handouts

TheLocal.de ^ | 13 May 13 12:01 CET | (The Local/jcw)

[Olog-hai]

Germany’s political parties will receive more state money than ever before, it was reported on Monday. In the run-up to September’s election, the country’s parties will be fueled by over €154 million ($199.7 million).

The ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens, socialist Linke party, and the ailing junior coalition partner the Free Democratic Party (FDP) will be getting four percent more state funding this year, the Saarbrücker Zeitung reported. …

[Buckeye McFrog]

That’s the way it’s done in Germany. Campaign Finance Reform carried to its logical conclusion.

[JoeFromSidney]

I had been a county party chairman for several years. I then went to Turkey as a visiting professor at Marmara U. I offered to give a faculty seminar on the organization of American political parties. After my talk, the first question I got was, how much money do the parties get from the government? There, the parties are financed by the government, and they assumed ours were too. As a result, Turkish parties don't have to pay any attention to the wants of their supposed members.

As an aside, the second question I got was, do I think OJ was guilty. I said yes.