Original article (in Slovenian) was published on 28/5/2024; Author: Žan Premrov
The Pirate Party successfully submitted a list of candidates for the 2022 general election in all eight electoral units and received 1.63% of the vote, or 19,480 votes, according to the National Electoral Commission.
On 11 May, the United in OPS Movement – Aware Citizens of Slovenia claimed on its Facebook page that the Pirate Party “won so many votes at the last general election that they have been receiving around €8,000 in taxpayer money since the 2022 elections, because they have exceeded the 1% threshold.”
They wondered how it is therefore possible that the party could not collect at least 1,000 signatures to stand in this year’s European Parliament elections, having been 60 signatures short. This, according to the association, is “yet more proof” that the general election was ”rigged”.
The association published its views the day after the National Electoral Commission announced that the Pirate Party had not collected enough signatures to successfully submit a candidate list for the European Parliament elections. According to the Election of Members of the Slovenian Parliament from the Republic of Slovenia Act, a political party can submit a candidate list with the support of at least 1,000 voter signatures, but the Pirate Party submitted only 903.
According to National Assembly Election Act, political parties must collect at least 50 signatures from voters with residence in each electoral unit in order to submit a list of candidates for the National Assembly (in some circumstances, 100 signatures in each unit are needed).
As the National Electoral Commission explained to Razkrinkavanje.si, the Pirate Party successfully submitted candidate lists in all of Slovenia’s eight electoral districts on the basis of voter signatures before the last general election.
It recalled that the elections were monitored by observers from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), who had been invited by the government in office at the time. In their final report on the 2022 Slovenian general election, the monitors assessed that the election was competitive and pluralistic. They said that the legal framework for the conduct of the elections was comprehensive and generally conducive to democratic elections, and that the competent authorities conducted them in a professional manner.
Parties that won at least one per cent of the vote in the general election are entitled to funding from the state budget under Political Parties Act, which also regulates party funding.
The Pirate Party won 1.63% of the vote at the 2022 general election and is therefore eligible for funding under the law, according to the National Electoral Commission. It has been eligible since 2014, because its share of the vote exceeded 1% that year and in 2018.
The National Assembly explained to Razkrinkavanje.si that the parties that won more than one percent of the vote in the last general election will have received their first funding instalment on 31 May 2022.
According to the Erar public spending review portal, the Pirate Party received €133,225 from the National Assembly between May 2022 and January this year, or an average of €6,344 per month. Data on transfers in February-May 2024 are not yet available in Erar.
Last July, the National Assembly passed an amendment to the Political Parties Act according to which all parties that received at least one percent of the vote at the general election are entitled to 10% of the total earmark for political parties, with the remainder of the funding divided according to the number of votes received. Before that, they were entitled to 25% of the total.
We have shared our findings with the Association United in the Movement OPS – Aware Citizens of Slovenia. We will publish our response when we receive it.
The claim that the Pirate Party received €8,000 of taxpayer money because of its result at the last general election is not true.
The Association’s claim that the Pirate Party’s unsuccessfully submitted candidate list for this year’s European elections proves that the 2022 national elections were rigged is baseless.
