New developments in party donations debate

The millions allegedly deposited by late Austrian right-wing populist Jörg Haider in Liechtenstein could reignite the discussion about a new party-donations law, writes the daily Der Standard: "He who has nothing to hide can reveal all: Up to now the parties in Austria have kept information about who supports them apart from the taxpayers under lock and key. Up to now only the auditing office president learned who donated more that 7,260 euros to a federal party. However he can neither give out information nor check the data, nor can he go public with it. Even the tiniest associations must reveal more than the political parties, which nowadays receive 171 million euros in taxpayer money. ... If now [the social democratic] SPÖ and [the conservative] ÖVP - under pressure from reports of Haider accounts in Liechtenstein - announce that they want to work on a law obliging parties to publish the names of their major donors, this would be a first small step. … But many further steps must follow."

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