Kallas rejects Ratas' plan to ban political party donations - ERR
11 Feb 2021 EWR Online
aja Kallas and Jüri Ratas sign the coalition agreement between their parties. Source: Priit Mürk/ERR
Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (Reform) rejects calls from her predecessor and Center Party chair Jüri Ratas to put party finances solely on the state budget. Kallas called the current system, which includes donations and membership fees as well as state grants, optimal.
Speaking at the regular government press conference Thursday, Kallas said: "I am increasingly convinced that the former Minister of Finance Martin Helme has not given the previous Prime Minister a good overview of the state budget. The state budget is not in a good position, therefore this proposal is not appropriate at the moment," he said.
Ratas told ERR Thursday that the matter could be put to the Riigikogu.
Ratas made announcement same day party watchdog appealed lifting of Center Party illegal donation fine
Donations tend to become much more significant in election year than in a non-election year, though state budget grants remain constant.
Center has seen no shortage of donation scandals and on the same day Ratas made his announcement, reports appeared that the ERJK was appealing the lifting of a €1 million-fine issued to the party following an alleged illegal donation.
Last year, the party had to return a €50,000 donation, whose origins were unclear, while it was an alleged corruption scandal involving a major Center donor, Hillar Teder, which helped bring about the collapse of the Center/EKRE/Isamaa coalition last month, though Center remains in office, and Ratas is set to become the next Riigikogu speaker - a very key post.
Reform rejects protection money scheme
Registered parties are granted sums from the state budget each year in proportion to their size and Rigiikogu representation. In the last quarter of last year, Reform got €447,134 and Center got €341,926 (Reform has more Riigikogu seats than Center at 34 versus 25 – ed.). Party finances watchdog appeals overruling of Center Party fine
Reform, however, rejects the practice of so-called protection money (Estonian: Katuseraha, literally "roof money"), a state budget top-up which is issued in the lead-in to voting on the state budget late on in the year to parties to distribute as they see fit to various regional projects, some of them controversial, as a way of greasing the wheels for the main state budget voting process. Reform has not accepted protection money for some years.
Speaking on Thursday, Kaja Kallas said that since Estonia was not a massively wealthy nation and given more pressing needs such as health care, education and fighting the pandemic, the existing financing system should remain, a system which, in the case of donations, is strictly regulated and monitored.
Party finance watchdog chief and deputy divided on issue
The chair and deputy chair of the party financing watchdog body, the ERJK, voiced differing views on Ratas' proposal.
ERJK chair Liisa Oviir said that removing scope for donations would alleviate influence-buying fears, noting that the major donors often hedge their bets by donating to more than one party, often both in office and in opposition.
