Delia calls for state funding of political parties to break ties with big money

Adrian Delia has called for political parties to be funded through the public purse in a bid to free them from “ties to big money”.

In a lengthy Facebook post on Friday evening, the Nationalist Party’s leadership candidate suggested the political parties should be treated like NGOs and receive funds from the public purse as part of a “Green and Blue Agenda”

“Political parties are essential to the running of the country,” Delia said. “Like other NGOs, they must be helped to fulfil their role in an efficient, transparent and accountable way.”

He called for rules that introduce “substantial government funding while putting limits on private donations”, adding this would rid the parties of the suspicion “that we are beholden to the property developers or the tourism operators”.

“Without financial freedom political parties struggle to have full political freedom,” Delia said.

The funding scheme should be available to new, small parties as well, receiving a set minimum amount. He suggested each political party would be defined by a minimum of paid-up members, with funding proportionate to votes received.

However, the funding should be limited to the political party’s role as an actor of social change. Commercial activities, such as the radio or television stations, “cannot be taken into consideration for funding purposes”.

“If we cannot run those sustainably we must be open to the idea of opening them up to other users on a shared air time basis,” Delia said.

He proposed that instead of spending €5 million on a film festival, that money could have been given to the political parties.

“We could start believing in cleaner politics freed from ties to big money,” he added, warning that if this “Blue and Green First agenda” is not imposed, “things can, and will, get much worse”.