Donations above €25,000 from a single donor ought to be illegal, according to the Nationalist Party, which also called on the Labour Party to return public properties to the people.
While the PN had four public properties, Labour had several on which it was paying a pittance in rent, Nationalist deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami said.
He called for a “level playing field”, insisting the PL should return the many properties it “stole” or had received as “gifts”.
Addressing a press conference on the White Paper about party financing regulations issued by the government, Dr Fenech Adami said these properties included Australia Hall and nearby Pembroke land, which the government withdrew a court case for their return last year.
This alone was “a gift costing €10 million”.
He noted how the PL was using public properties as clubs, such as those in Cospicua, Floriana, Gudja, Għaxaq, Kirkop, Msida, Qormi, Rabat, Sta Luċija, Senglea, Ta’ Xbiex and Vittoriosa.
The lease was miserable, he said, with 44c a day rent for the club in Rabat, 54c a day for the one in Floriana, 53c a day in Għaxaq and 91c a day for the Msida club.
Party general secretary Chris Said explained that although the PN agreed with the party financing law in principle, the White Paper did not address several issues.
He said the regulator should be the Commissioner for Standards rather than the Electoral Commission, which has a majority of government representatives.
The PN suggests donations up to €1,000 should remain anonymous while donations up to €10,000 should be registered in the parties’ accounts. Donations between €10,000 and €25,000 should be registered with the Commissioner for Standards while any above €25,000 should be illegal, down from the €50,000 cap proposed by the government.
The White Paper proposes parties register all donations over €500 and more than €10,000 from the same donor should be reported to the Electoral Commission.
On general election candidate spending, Dr Said said the White Paper proposed a maximum of €25,000 for every candidate but the PN was proposing a maximum of €15,000 per district contested.
For the European Parliament elections, the PN was proposing that the cap should be reduced from €50,000 to €35,000. The cap for local council elections should be €5,000, and €1,000 for adminis-trative committees.
The PN also wants the law to include provisions on lending to political parties by individuals or companies that are not financial institutions. Loans between €10,000 and €25,000 should be registered in the party books while anything exceeding €25,000 should be registered with the commissioner. Donations exceed ing €500,000 should be banned.
The law should also set a cap on how much parties could spend on elections and address scenarios where they have a shareholding in a commercial company, with rules preventing such companies being used to circumvent the funding law, said Dr Said.
He said the PN had two clubs, in Santa Luċija and Ta’ Xbiex, that had been built on public land after the party had obtained the lease through a public tender process. Two other properties are on land that was originally Church-owned and is now owned by the Joint Office but on which the lease was acquired by the PN at commercial rates. “We have 60 clubs that we bought with the sweat of our brow,” Dr Fenech Adami added.