PN and PL debts stun MEP: ‘Amounts are tenfold the budget of my political party’

Malta’s indebted political parties owe amounts that are tenfold the budget of a political party in the Netherlands, a senior MEP has said, raising concern over the issue.

Sophie In’t Veld, the chairperson of the rule of law working group in the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee, made the comment at the end of a three-day follow-up visit to assess progress on rule of law issues.

She said the high level of debt faced by Malta’s two big political parties, which form the government and the Opposition, needs to be addressed urgently.

“In any political system, a party should be extremely worried if it has tens of millions of debt. You wonder to whom it has these debts. It influences the course of the party. Do you still remain fully independent? We’re talking about amounts that are tenfold the budget of my political party in my home country,” she said.

Opposition leader Bernard Grech has recently revealed that the Nationalist Party has a debt mountain of €32 million and its media company is making hefty monthly losses.

He even admitted that the financial problems had an impact on how the party communicated its message and at times even its political content.

Additionally, sister newspaper Illum recently reported that the Labour Party’s media arm had around €10 million in debt, which was primarily with government entities.

Malta’s political parties finance their operations through donations and any commercial activity linked to their subsidiary companies, although these are loss-making. Political parties in parliament receive a yearly grant of €150,000 each for ‘research’ purposes but otherwise there is no regulated state funding of political parties.

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