SaS Launches Petition against Hike in Election Deposits and Party Funding Cuts

Bratislava, 9 July (TASR) – The opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party is initiating a mass public petition against the Interior Ministry’s proposed amendment to legislation on political parties. MP Ondrej Dostal announced the initiative on Wednesday, expressing his hope that the required 500 signatures to formally influence the legislative process will be collected. The draft amendment proposes a sharp increase in election deposits — from €17,000 to €50,000 for parliamentary elections, and from €1,700 to €25,000 for European Parliament elections. SaS opposes these changes, arguing that they would disproportionately burden smaller and emerging parties. The party also called for the current 2 percent vote threshold for refunding election deposits to be maintained, rather than raising it to 5 percent, and it opposes increasing the minimum vote share required to qualify for state funding from 3 to 5 percent. "In most countries that provide public funding to parties, the threshold for financial support is lower than that for entering parliament. Even extra-parliamentary parties are supported," said Dostal. SaS also wants to prevent a proposed rule that would reduce state subsidies for political parties by 30 percent in the four years following any year in which the public-finance deficit exceeds 3 percent of GDP. Additionally, the party supports enabling voting via post in presidential and European elections and proposes lowering the preference vote threshold needed to change candidate rankings from 3 percent to 1 percent. Another point raised in the petition is the protection of sensitive personal data. SaS recommends maintaining the current rule that prohibits the publication of a candidate's gender to protect the privacy of transgender and intersex individuals. The Interior Ministry's proposal aims to reform party financing by linking subsidies to economic performance and by restricting funding only to parties that make it into parliament. The proposal is currently under interdepartmental review. mf/df