In the election campaign revealed Cold facts how parties could propose different schemes to circumvent the law on party funding.
Now the government wants to take a comprehensive approach to the problem in the form of a parliamentary inquiry.
– Openness and transparency are central values for our democracy, there are good reasons to review these issues regularly, says Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer (M).
During the election campaign, TV4’s Kalla fakta revealed how five out of eight parties in the Riksdag – all but V, MP and C – could think of different plans to circumvent the law on anonymous party contributions.
It was suggested to set up bulvans, split contributions or that family members could help with the donations.
The Chamber of Deputies, which is the supervisory authority, examined the parties but the investigation was closed because no formal errors could be demonstrated.
Gunnar Strömmer, who was party secretary at the time, described how you could donate to the Moderates but also other actors outside the party. He notes that he could have been tighter in what information he provided and stopped at how to support the party.
– One lesson I learned from it was that when you use these rules, you must also have good margins when providing information about gifts.
All parties
Now the government is appointing a parliamentary committee in which all parties in the Riksdag are included to review what transparency should apply to party financing and propose possible measures.
Since 2018, there is a very limited scope for parties to receive anonymous contributions.
– It will be an important task for this investigation to evaluate the model and see if today’s rules are sufficient or if they should be adjusted in different ways, says Gunnar Strömmer.
The committee, which will work until February 2025, will also review whether the parties will have to report more of their finances than today – such as expenses, assets and liabilities.
The investigation will also look at whether special fundraising organizations should be covered by an accounting obligation.
Before the 2018 parliamentary elections, it was revealed how the far-right party Alternative for Sweden ordered 10.3 million ballots, a very large amount in relation to the party’s size. The funding was unclear and afterwards it emerged that the donor was a newly started non-profit association, AFS collection, which prevented transparency.
“Qatargate” in the EU
More recently, the EU has also been rocked by a bribery scandal, dubbed “Qatargate”, which resulted in the EU Parliament voting through a series of measures to limit lobbying and foreign influence in Parliament.
Strömmer highlights this and the committee must also review whether a “lobbyist register” should be introduced, or a requirement for transparency regarding contacts between political decision-makers and lobbyists.
As far as foreign influence is concerned, that is also a point to review.
– Already today, it is a criminal offense to receive money from a foreign power in order to influence public opinion in matters relating to Sweden’s state or security. It is a rather narrow regulation, says Strömmer and continues:
– The fact that we are raising this issue is partly in light of a changed global situation where we know that our internal security is being challenged by state actors, and partly it is an issue that is discussed a lot within the EU.
The investigation will be led by former Minister of Justice Mats Melin.