In total, direct public grants represent three-quarters of the money received by the parties. The last quarter is made up of indirect grants, namely donations from natural persons (capped at €2,500 per year and €500 per candidate, list, representative or party), as well as grants from parliaments and provincial councils (by votes received and seats ), the subsidies of the parliamentary groups and the participations of the members of the parties themselves.
As you will have understood, all the parties are therefore not housed in the same boat. For ULB political science professor Marie Göransson, this is both legitimate and challenging: “To be funded, you must have won the elections. It is legitimate for a party present at all levels of power and national activity to have greater funding than a party which represents nothing at all. But should the electoral success of a party determine its funding to such an extent? Indeed, unlike the system in place in France, Belgium does not grant parties special funding during election campaigns. “This closes the game since the parties that won the previous elections sare able to shell out more money in the next election. There are limits on campaign spending but once more these limits depend on success of the party to previous elections.”
