The centre-right Radical Liberal Party and the right-wing Swiss People’s Party began their campaigns for the October 22 federal elections with the largest budgets.
The Radical Liberal Party has received CHF12.4 million ($13.6 million) in donations to support its candidates this year, while the People’s Party has CHF11.1 million.
The biggest individual donor is Christoph Blocher. The former Swiss cabinet minister donated CHF550,000 to the People’s Party, according to the Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) database, which was created to improve the transparency of the financing of political campaigns in Switzerland.
The Swiss Union of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (USAM), the Employers’ Union, the Swiss Peasants’ Union and the Swiss business federation economiesuisse each contributed CHF500,000 to the “Swiss Perspective” campaign for centre-right political candidates this year. The Foundation for Bourgeois Politics (Stiftung für bürgerliche Politik), which is close to the People’s Party, and Carmita Burkard (for the Green Party) donated similar sums.
Meanwhile, the left-wing Social Democratic Party has received CHF6.9 million for its election campaign, followed by the Centre Party (CHF 6.6 million), the Green Party (CHF3.7 million), the Liberal Green Party (CHF2.9 million) and the Protestant Party (CHF1.2 million).
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‘Only a minority try to get around transparency rules’
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The financing of Swiss democracy is now more transparent, but more needs to be done, according to the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO).
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