Lithuanian political parties running up large debts

With elections in the offing, many of Lithuania‘s political parties are already mired in debt despite receiving large state subsidies, according to the Central Electoral Commission.

The Liberal Movement ended 2015 in the worst financial position of all the Lithuanian political parties with a deficit of €253,000, incurred during the 2015 elections to the European Parliament and municipal councils according to the party. The party received €655,000 in state subsidies in 2015. The party also took out two bank loans from Šialių Bankas amounting to €434,400.

The Labour Party had the second highest level of debt at the end of last year with a deficit of €47,700 despite receving €977,000 in state subsidies. The party also had other listed financial liabilities of €1.9 million according to the CEC report on the financial status of the parties.

Only two Lithuanian parliamentary parties – the Social Democrats and the Lithuanian Poles‘ Electoral Action are not carrying significant debts. The Lithuanian Poles’ Electoral Action last year received €372,000 in state subsidies and ended the year with a €502,000 surplus.

The ruling Social Democratic Party received €1.14 million in funding from the state and at the end of the year the party had a surplus of €562,800.

Even with a €1.1 million state subsidy Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats could not avoid financial liabilities amounting to €362,000 at the end of 2015, the party also had €67,000 of short term debt. The party said the main costs it incurred were for payroll in the run-up to the next general election.

The Order and Justice party spent its €500,000 state subsidy and all other income it generated, and ended 2015 with €15,000 of long term debt and €36,600 of short term financial liabilities.

Lietuvos Žinios