The Nationalist Party raised €343,563 during a fundraising drive held over the weekend, it said on Monday.

The funds will be used to fund the PN’s work and help it deliver its message.

Party leader Bernard Grech thanked people for having donated to the party and vowed that all the money raised would be used for its intended purpose.

In a similar fundraising drive organized last month, the Labour Party raised €668,000. 

Under current party financing rules, political parties can receive up to €25,000 a year from any one source, with confidential donations ostensibly capped at €500 a year. Any donations from the same source that amount to larger than €7,000 must be reported. But significant loopholes in party financing rules remain.

Grech has called for the parties to receive state financing that they can then use to fund their political work, adding that the PN will not accept money from people who seek to control the party or its policies through their donations. 

"I'm telling them ‘if you want to be dirty and gobble things up, go to the Labour Party," Grech said in an interview with Times of Malta.