Latvia gives political parties more public funding than neighbours

Latvia’s political parties receive more state funding than parties in Estonia and Lithuania, LSM reported, reviewing the seven years since Parliament sharply increased public financing for parties.

In autumn 2019, the Saeima adopted major amendments to the law on financing political organisations and parties, raising state funding more than sixfold for parties that received at least 2% of the vote. The increase was also one of the priorities proposed by President Egils Levits after his election that summer.

Funding rose from 0.71 euros for each vote in a parliamentary election to 4.50 euros. Parties also became eligible for 0.50 euros for every vote received in local and European Parliament elections. A fixed payment of 100,000 euros was introduced for parties entering the Saeima.

The explanatory note to the bill submitted by Krisjanis Karins’s first government, then led by New Unity, said Latvia’s total party funding from the state budget was approximately 580,000 euros. That was about nine times less than in Lithuania, where parties received 5.8 million euros, and Estonia, where they received 5.4 million euros.

The stated aim was to reduce political parties’ dependence on private donations by bringing state funding closer to the average level in the Baltic states.

The amendments adopted later that autumn took effect at the beginning of 2020. In February 2022, following proposals from the leaders of the then coalition factions, the Saeima introduced a mechanism linking party funding to the minimum wage and creating an almost guaranteed regular increase in future income.

Parties now receive 0.9% of the minimum monthly wage for each vote in a parliamentary election and 0.1% for each vote in local and European Parliament elections.

Although the Saeima has frozen the growth of party funding in recent years, parties in Latvia currently receive more from the state budget than those in Lithuania and Estonia.