Elections are approaching, but political parties are not certain they will get funds allocated to them in the state budget.
If the Parliamentary Committee on the Constitution does not hold a session by the end of June, parliamentary parties could lose budgetary funds intended for their political activities in the second part of the year. However, Committee Chairman Robert Podolnjak (MOST) said that he did not intend to convene a session until Parliament accepts the amendments to a law which would limit the annual funding for political parties to the maximum of 48 million kuna, reports Večernji List on June 26, 2016.
After temporary financing during the first quarter, the Parliamentary Committee distributed funds only for the first half of the year, and the Parliament at the same time gave its initial approval to amendments to the Law on Financing Political Activities and Election Campaigns that would allow the total amount to be determined on the basis of tax revenues and not budgetary expenditures. Podolnjak reminded that MOST and HSLS suggested that these amendments should be adopter in just one reading, but that the majority in the Committee and Parliament opted for two readings of the proposal.
The final proposal should be sent into the parliamentary procedure very soon. “The intention of MOST was to adopt amendments to the Law before the Parliament is dissolved on 15 July. If that proposal is not accepted, parties will not get a penny from the budget in the third quarter”, said Podolnjak. He added that, in that case, funds allocated to parties and independent candidates would be paid only after the next Parliament is officially constituted, which is not likely before October. He is convinced that the money could not be retroactively distributed.
Other parties, however, would like to avoid convening Parliament just to ensure the financing of their political activities. HDZ unofficially says that further parliamentary sessions before 15 July should be avoided so that Parliament is not turned into a venue for election campaign propaganda. They accuse Podolnjak for blackmailing Parliament with the adoption of the law proposed by his party.
SDP also said they would not demand a session of Parliament to be convened for this matter and added they would solve their financing problems in some other way. They also believe that the money would be paid to parties eventually.
