Figures from 200 parties in 25 countries suggest hardline groups have had rise in donations in recent years, increasing war chests before European parliament elections
A quarter of all private money donated to political parties in the EU is going to far-right, far-left and populist movements, boosting their finances by millions of euros before crucial European parliament elections next week.
With the polls predicting a rise in support for hardline conservative, Eurosceptic and pro-Russia parties, the Guardian and other 26 media partners, led by the investigations group Follow the Money, are publishing Transparency Gap, the most extensive analysis yet of political financing in the EU.
The data was gathered from the annual reports of more than 200 parties across 25 countries.
It shows €150m (£128m), the equivalent of €1 in every €4 of all private donations made between 2019 and 2022, went to populist parties and those with the most extreme political views.
Far-right groups have pulled in more than €97m, equivalent to €1 in every €7 of private money.
Isn’t this how it is supposed to work? Why should anyone’s voice be silenced if all opinions are worth the same?
They aren’t.
“Kill all the Muslims” is not worth the same as “we should all try to get along.”
Opinions that try to break societies’ democratic contract are not worth anything at all. You break your side of the democratic contract by working for our war enemies, or break the fundamental rights of society, dont expect the rest of society to give a damn. That’s how tolerance works. It is a contract.
Yes I agree with you, of course, in theory it should work like this. But all around me I see things going so terribly wrong, so I assume practice must be somewhat different from the theory.
E.g. in my country far-right politicians have been democratically elected and they are dismantling the nation and changing the constitution, all legally.
Edit: Nobody is giving a f-ck neither internally nor externally (e.g. OTAN or EU) so I assume they are fine with it too.