Law changes for political party financing agreed in secret

Amendments to the law covering political party financing were approved just before Christmas, having been discussed in secret without minutes of the meeting or any record of who presented the proposed changes.

All the public are allowed to know is the parties that approved the changes and that these now will be analysed by the President of the Republic and signed, or rejected.

MPs voted electronically on Thursday, 21 December, for amendments to the law on party financing, which, among other things, ends VAT liabilities. The parties that voted against the amendments were the Centro Democrático e Social (CDS) and the one MP from People Animals Nature (PAN.)

The need to change the legislation came after the President of the Constitutional Court asked Parliament to implement changes to the supervisory model.

The debate began in parliament about nine months ago. Meetings have been held behind closed doors, and proposals for amendments to the law were tabled by three unknown political parties, referred to only as Party A, Party B and Party C thus disguising the author of the proposal in question.