Political parties' financing, 2012

Government funding was at the same level in 2012 as in 2011. The fall in total income of NOK 43 million was due to a drop in income from own activities and contributions from organisations and private persons. The income from own activities fell by NOK 24 million. Own activities include membership fees, lottery revenues and similar, capital income and business and other activities. The total income from these areas, excluding lottery revenues, fell NOK 29 million, while lottery revenues increased by almost NOK 5 million to NOK 29 million. Almost NOK 21 million of the total lottery revenues went to the Labour Party; an increase of around NOK 5.5 million. The Pensioners’ Party and the Red Party also saw a considerable increase in lottery revenues, but at different levels, to NOK 552 000 and NOK 322 000 respectively. The remaining parties had either a fall or slight increase in lottery revenues.

The Labour Party saw a sharp fall of NOK 18 million in capital income. This was due to a large sale of shares by a county branch of the Labour Party in 2011 and the Labour Party returning to the “normal” amount of capital income in 2012. The Christian Democratic Party and Conservative Party received around NOK 1 million and almost NOK 700 000 less in capital income respectively in 2012 compared to 2011, while the other parties only saw small changes. The parties’ total capital income was almost halved from NOK 41 million in 2011 to NOK 21 million in 2012.

The remaining income included in income from own activities, i.e. from business and other activities, also fell substantially from NOK 38 to 31 million, with only the Green Party, Progress Party and the Democrats experiencing a slight increase. The total income from membership fees also fell, but these figures must be viewed with caution since fees that are collected centrally may have been recorded as membership fees instead of internally transferred funds in some of the local branches and differently from year to year.

Smaller contribution from organisations and private persons in the years between elections

The years between elections normally see a fall in the total financial contributions from organisations and private persons compared with election years. The total contributions from commercial enterprises, organisations and private persons fell from NOK 48 million in 2011 to NOK 29 million in 2012. The Labour Party is in an exceptional position in both absolute and relative terms, with almost NOK 15 million less in such income, down from NOK 22 to 7 million, i.e. a drop of almost 70 per cent from 2011. Much of this fall is due to the payments to the Utøya Fund in 2011. The relative fall is also considerable for most of the other parties, with only the Centre Party and the Red Party experiencing an increase in income from contributions.

 The contributions from organisations have seen a particular fall, in addition to the contributions from private persons. In 2012, organisations contributed NOK 18 million and private persons gave NOK 11 million to the parties, compared with almost NOK 34 and 14 million respectively in 2011. In 2012, the Conservative Party received the most contributions, with around NOK 10 million, while the Labour Party received NOK 7 million and the Socialist Left Party received almost NOK 4 million in contributions. In 2011, the Labour Party received the most contributions overall by a wide margin, with around NOK 22 million, of which NOK 21 million was from organisations. The Conservative Party and the Socialist Left Party received NOK 10 million and almost NOK 5 million respectively.

NOK 292 million in public funding to the three largest parties

Public funding was mainly given in the form of party support from the State. A total of NOK 292 million went to the three largest parties; the Labour Party, Conservative Party and Progress Party, which is around 70 per cent of the NOK 403 million of government funding. Basic support and voting support made up more than 83 per cent of the public funding to the parties as a whole, with the three largest parties receiving almost 85 per cent of their income in the form of basic support and voting support. The Progress Party is 90 per cent funded by public funds, and this share has remained stable in recent years. The remaining parties at the Storting have a corresponding share of between 70 and 76 per cent, with the exception of the Christian Democratic Party, which received 63 per cent of its income from public funds in 2012.

Income development from 2005

The total income to the parties that report their income has increased by 21.4 per cent from 2005 to 2012. General inflation in the same period was 14.2 per cent.

The detailed figures for all of the party organisations are published by the Ministry of Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs at partifinansiering.no .