BERLIN, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Free Democratic Party (FDP) have received the largest political donations in Germany's ongoing election campaign so far, figures released by the administrative offices of the Federal Parliament (Bundestag) showed Tuesday.
According to a Federal Parliament press release, the CDU has secured 1.9 million euros in funds in donations amounting to more than 50,000 euros, compared to 1.5 million euros for the FDP.
The figures for the FDP are particularly remarkable given that it has not been represented in Federal Parliament since 2013. The FDP achieved eight times as many large donations as the Social Democrats (SPD) and Green (Gruene) party who received one donation worth 100,000 euros each.
Both the Christian Social Union (CSU) and Left (Linke) parties have failed to secure any large donations so far.
German law mandates that political parties must report donations worth more than 50,000 euros immediately. The administrative offices of the Federal Parliament subsequently publish the names of donors.
In 2017, large political donors included some of the richest Germans and well-known corporations. The single highest donation of more than half a million euros was made by the internet entrepreneur Ralph Dommermuth to the CDU.
The German car industry, which is under intense international pressure for its role in the developing "dieselgate" and "cartel" corporate scandals, also showed generosity towards political parties.
The Quandt family, which owns the majority of shares of the Bavarian carmaker BMW, donated 200,000 euros in an even split between the CDU and FDP. The Stuttgart-based carmaker Daimler, which owns the Mercedes-Benz brand among others, took a similar approach. The SPD and CDU received 100,000 euros each from the carmaker.
Smaller donations are also registered under the German electoral system if their combined volume is higher than 10,000 euros in a given year. If several, rather than one single donation, are made by the same individual totalling over 10,000 euros, parties must register the name and address of the donor which is eventually published. Donations of up to 1,000 euros can be made in cash.
When German parties fail to act in accordance with these regulations they can be fined up to three times the amount of falsely declared or undeclared donations. (1 euro=1.18 U.S. dollars)
