The SPD parliamentary group in the House of Representatives are accused of massive violations of the ban on election advertising and party financing. The reason is a Tagesspiegel report on the parliamentary group’s expenditure on newspaper advertisements.
In addition, there is now online advertising in the hot phase of the election campaign six weeks before the repeat election. “Funding the election campaign from group funds represents a case of infidelity and thus for the public prosecutor,” said Berlin’s CDU General Secretary Stefan Evers on Saturday.
The Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey and “her SPD have long since lost not only the feeling for the capital, but apparently also the necessary decency”. The “SPD system” is a big problem for Berlin. Advertisements financed from taxes are “banned for political groups as well as for the government”.
Berlin’s FDP General Secretary Lars Lindemann said: “There are very clear rules for the public relations work of parliamentary groups during the election campaign phase. The SPD doesn’t seem to be taking the applicable restraint order too seriously.” Without quick clarification, “the fatal impression could arise that a party that has governed our city for over 30 years wants to be above things.”
“The SPD’s butt is on the ground ice”
Left country chief Katina Schubert expressed reservations. “It is up to the Court of Auditors to verify the admissibility of this advertising campaign,” she said. Even the AfD parliamentary group, whose federal party attracted attention with party donation scandals, held back on spending before the election.
“Funds for parliamentary work must not be used for election purposes,” said a spokesman for the state party. The advertising campaign of the SPD parliamentary group “will have to be checked for its admissibility”. The Greens did not want to comment, but confidentially it was said: “The SPD’s butt is on the ground ice.”
The SPD parliamentary group placed two-page advertisements in the advertising paper “Berliner Woche” three and two weeks before the election. “Our timetable” could be read on the subject of health and participation – concrete points, in other words, what the SPD parliamentary group would like to do after the election: more medical practices, a children’s hospital, more benches at bus stops.
Even the first advertisement cost “with a circulation of around 1.7 million issues (…) a moderate EUR 30,818.62 gross”, explained Parliamentary Secretary Torsten Schneider. Similar costs can be assumed for the second ad. Schneider said the ads were permissible, and that the parliamentary group was only using them to provide information about their work.
According to the standards of the federal and state audit offices, not only government agencies have to hold back in their public relations work in the last six weeks before elections. This is to prevent the state from giving advantages to a certain party with tax money.
According to the Courts of Auditors and a report by the Bundestag’s Scientific Service from 2019, this also applies to parliamentary groups. The reason for the restraint rule in the election campaign: During this time, citizens themselves see ads by the factions as campaign tools. This is how the courts of auditors see it, but also the constitutional courts of various federal states.
SPD also advertised on social media
The SPD faction not only invested around 60,000 euros in newspaper ads, but also in advertising on social media such as Facebook. The tech group Meta makes its advertising revenue transparent. Since January 3, i.e. at the beginning of the six-week phase before the election, and up to last Wednesday, Meta has recorded estimated expenditure by the SPD parliamentary group on Facebook and Instagram of between 8,000 and 9,800 euros.
Eleven ads are noted, each priced at between 500 and 1500 euros, played out from January 14th. Since last Sunday, January 29th, until Saturday, February 4th, Meta has listed advertising costs of 4473 euros for the SPD faction in Berlin. That is the “estimated amount” that the parliamentary group spent last week on “election advertising” or “advertising on politically or socially relevant topics”.
The other fractions, on the other hand, have held back, spending little or nothing at all on advertising on Facebook and Instagram. Since January 3, Meta has recorded ad spending by the CDU faction of 1,050 euros and by the left faction of 895 euros.
CDU General Secretary Evers sees the case in a larger context. “Following the current corruption scandal surrounding an SPD election campaign agency, the next scandal surrounding the financing of the Berlin SPD is coming,” he said. The Berlin public prosecutor’s office is investigating ex-health senator Dilek Kalayci (SPD) for accepting benefits, as well as against an owner of a marketing agency for granting benefits. The SPD politician is said to have used the company privately, the agency was commissioned by the Senate to run a care campaign. Kalayci’s lawyers point out that allegations back.
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