Figures from 200 parties in 25 countries suggest hardline groups have had rise in donations in recent years, increasing war chests before European parliament elections
A quarter of all private money donated to political parties in the EU is going to far-right, far-left and populist movements, boosting their finances by millions of euros before crucial European parliament elections next week.
With the polls predicting a rise in support for hardline conservative, Eurosceptic and pro-Russia parties, the Guardian and other 26 media partners, led by the investigations group Follow the Money, are publishing Transparency Gap, the most extensive analysis yet of political financing in the EU.
The data was gathered from the annual reports of more than 200 parties across 25 countries.
It shows €150m (£128m), the equivalent of €1 in every €4 of all private donations made between 2019 and 2022, went to populist parties and those with the most extreme political views.
Far-right groups have pulled in more than €97m, equivalent to €1 in every €7 of private money.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A quarter of all private money donated to political parties in the EU is going to far-right, far-left and populist movements, boosting their finances by millions of euros before crucial European parliament elections next week.
With the polls predicting a rise in support for hardline conservative, Eurosceptic and pro-Russia parties, the Guardian and other 26 media partners, led by the investigations group Follow the Money, are publishing Transparency Gap, the most extensive analysis yet of political financing in the EU.
While most countries oblige parties to declare their total income from private and public sources, rules vary widely and financing in some member states is a “black box”.
The research found no signs of wrongdoing, but a major study commissioned by the European parliament into political party funding concluded that a lack of transparency can lead to corruption risks.
The analysis shows that, when combined, far-right, far-left and populist parties are attracting more than half of the non-public funding in Slovenia, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Portugal and Greece.
At a far-right rally in Madrid earlier this month, the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, delivered a video message calling “for patriots to occupy Brussels”, saying legislators there were responsible for “unleashing massive illegal migration” and “poisoning our children with gender propaganda”.
The original article contains 936 words, the summary contains 209 words. Saved 78%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
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if all opinions are worth the same?
They aren’t.
“Kill all the Muslims” is not worth the same as “we should all try to get along.”
Opinions that try to break societies’ democratic contract are not worth anything at all. You break your side of the democratic contract by working for our war enemies, or break the fundamental rights of society, dont expect the rest of society to give a damn. That’s how tolerance works. It is a contract.
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Holy horseshoe theory bullshit, Batman!
To equate the far right who want to take away the rights (and often lives) of all minorities with the far left who want to take away most of the wealth of billionaires and multinational corporations is extremely lazy and incurious at best, deliberate disinformation at worst.
And that’s not even mentioning the MSM use of “populist” as meaning “everyone who doesn’t conform to the establishment orthodoxy whether they’re far right demagogues or policy oriented leftists” 🤦
More interesting though is where they came from.
Rich people
Yeah, rich people in the Kremlin.
No, your local rich people are also an issue.
Agreed.
Fuck the guardian for lumping together fascists with leftist movements.
Extremism is anyone that is not neoliberal
