German election 2025: How party and campaign financing works

Less than two weeks before the general election, an anti-corruption watchdog has urged a reform of Germany's "opaque" party funding laws. The call comes amid large donations to the AfD and BSW parties — and as the country slips from 9th to 15th place in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index.

There is no curb on the size of donations that individuals, companies or groups can make to German parties, or on how often donors can make gifts.

Transparency Germany Chair Alexandra Herzog sees that as a major problem: "In Germany what a person can gift to a party is unrestricted. We are calling for an upper limit of €50,000 per donor, per year, per party."

In an interview with DW, Herzog cited a recent multi-million euro donation to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) from a former party official from Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ). The AfD accepted the payment of almost €2.35 million ($2.43 mio) to fund a large-scale poster campaign for the February 23 election.

While gifts from outside the European Union are limited to €1,000, donations from EU citizens are not capped.

The dangers of big sum donations

Larger sums do, however, have to be immediately reported to Germany's parliament. The AfD's Austrian windfall was disclosed in accordance with regulations, according to the Bundestag Administration. The authority also told tagesschau.de, a news portal linked to public broadcasting company ARD, that there were no grounds for querying the donation's admissibility on the basis of existing information.

The TI Germany Chair warned, however, of the danger of such gifts. "Insufficient transparency and uncontrolled large donations — some of which come from abroad — jeopardize fair political competition and undermine citizens' trust in democracy."

Countries, such as Finland and France do, in contrast, have donation caps. Paris has also banned corporate gifts. Current German party financing rules, Herzog argues, make Germany more susceptible to attempts by foreign states to exert influence.

Big windfalls on the rise

Last year was a record year in Germany for big-sum donations — with more than €18.6 million reported to parliament. 

While the conservative Christian Democrats were showered with cash after the collapse of the center-left coalition, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), a newcomer populist party, was 2024's overall winner. It received €6.4 million ahead of the CDU's €5.3 million. The majority came from two big gifts from one German businessman. In 2025, the conservatives are out in front.

Under financing laws, parties are not allowed to accept any anonymous donations over €500. Amounts above €10,000 must be published in each party's annual report along with donor information.

The President of the Bundestag, Germany's Lower House of Parliament, has to be informed straight away about gifts above €35,000. The amount and the donor's identity must also be published in parliamentary papers soon afterward. Transparency Germany would like to see all sums over €10,000 require immediate disclosure.

Other sources of funding: membership fees and the state

Parties get revenue from membership fees, too, which are usually linked to a member's net income. In the case of the Greens, for example, the monthly membership fee is generally 1% of net income.

The CDU charges its 363,000 members between €8 and €50 per month according to their income — while the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) membership fee starts at €6 per month and goes up to €300 for net monthly earnings over €6,000.

Political parties in Germany also receive funding from the federal government depending and in accordance with how well they fare in elections. They are eligible for public funding if they manage to snag at least 1% of the vote at the state level or 0.5% of the vote in either the EU or national elections.

In addition, the parties receive 45 cents for every euro they receive in the form of membership fees, contributions from elected representatives and donations (up to €3,300).

However, a party can never get more state funding than it generates through its own revenue in any year. So, state funding cannot make up more than half of its income.

A ceiling on state funding is set each year by the Bundestag. In 2024, it was increased to a total of €219 million.

Campaign financing

Unlike the United States and other countries, Germany does not distinguish between campaign financing and a political party's funds. Campaigning is considered part of the normal duties of a political party and is therefore included in the party's total budget.

And unlike in the US, all campaign advertising, from billboards to radio and TV ads, is limited to a few weeks before the election in Germany.

The CDU is reported to have the highest campaign budget of all parties: 28 million euros, a spokesperson told the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND).

Of course, all of this seems like nothing compared to US election financing. There election spending in the 2020-2024 cycle is estimated to have cost between 10 to 15 billion dollars.

Edited by Rina Goldenberg

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