What role does money play in Swiss politics?

Members of the Swiss Senate in parliament in Bern, September 26, 2025. Keystone / Alessandro Della Valle

The first data analysis since the introduction of new rules in Switzerland shows that the country is average in Europe when it comes to the transparency of political party funding. But the country’s oversight body says the rules still don’t provide a full picture.

Switzerland introduced transparency rules for political financing in 2023. Before, no one knew who was bankrolling the country’s politics. Today, the identities of donors are known for about two-thirds of all referendum campaign contributions and for half of all party donations.

How does Switzerland measure up against its European peers? Data from the Dutch investigative platform Follow the Money (FTM) make it possible to find out. In 2024, FTM gathered informationExternal link from across the European Union (EU) on how parties are financed and where their money comes from.

Switzerland ranks average for the EU

In terms of transparency in party financing, Switzerland ranks 13th among 23 EU countries for referendum and election campaigns, and 11th for donations to national parties. The EU figures are based on annual party reports and national registersExternal link.

Three EU countries were excluded from the analysis: Austria (due to the regional nature of party disclosures), Lithuania (parties are not required to publish annual financial statements), and Luxembourg (only unconsolidated accounts available).

Transparency rules vary widely across Europe. “Switzerland lies in the solid middle,” says Toine Paulissen, a political scientist at the university of Leuven who studies referendum campaign financing across Europe, including in Ireland, the UK and Moldova.

Referendums, he says, are particularly revealing because political parties have less to gain directly than in elections. “Big spending during referendums reveals priorities,” Paulissen adds. “Election promises cost nothing. Referendum campaigns are expensive.”

Nowhere else in the world holds public votes as frequently as Switzerland; read about how the Swiss political system works in our article below:

However, Paulissen is critical of Switzerland’s high disclosure thresholds. Donors who contribute less than CHF15,000 ($18,600) can remain anonymous, and campaigns with budgets of less than CHF50,000 do not need to report at all. As a result, much of the funding remains hidden, and the true balance of power is unclear.

An EU studyExternal link puts the average donation threshold at €2,400 (CHF 2,242) – about a sixth of Switzerland’s. The Council of Europe’s anti-corruption body GRECO has also called on Switzerland to lower the CHF15,000 limit in its most recent reportExternal link.

One country seen as a model for transparency is Czechia, where all campaign expenditures must go through a special bank account, and these accounts are publicly accessibleExternal link.

“Transparency is also about strengthening trust in the political system,” says Paulissen. According to a recent GFS surveyExternal link commissioned by the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, 80% of the Swiss population believes lobbying groups exert too much political influence and that money plays too large a role in politics.

Transparency in Swiss political funding

Switzerland was the last country in the Council of Europe to introduce transparency rulesExternal link, which came into force in autumn 2023. They apply to campaigns for national votes and referendums, as well as to political parties represented in parliament. Campaigns that spend more than CHF50,000 must disclose their total income and all donations above CHF15,000. Parliamentary parties must publish their annual revenues and list major donors. All data is submitted to and published by External linkthe Federal Audit Office. The justice ministry is currently reviewing how well the rules are working.

Who are the major donors in Swiss politics?

In Switzerland, anyone can donate as much as they like. Just two restrictions apply: donations must not be anonymous, and they must not come from abroad. These rules align with EU standards. Anonymous donations are banned in three-quarters of EU countries, and the same goes for foreign contributions.

Only Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Germany (for donations under €1,000, or CHF 934) allow money from abroad.

In 2024, just 10% of declared party donations and 2% of donations to referendum and election campaigns in Switzerland came from private individuals. The rest came from companies, trade associations, unions and NGOs. Swiss politics relies heavily on funding from organisations with economic – or at least ideological – interests. One high-profile complaintExternal link involved a donation from Swisscom, the majority state-owned telecommunications company.

The civil engineering association Infra Suisse donated around CHF140,000 last year to support a campaign for more motorways. Meanwhile, Axpo – an energy company owned by Swiss cantons – contributed about CHF250,000 to a campaign for more renewable energy.

In total, CHF31 million in donations were declared for referendum campaigns in 2024. Half of the money came from business associations, but environmental NGOs, homeowners’ groups, doctors’ associations and unions also contributed millions.

By contrast, political donations in the EU primarily come from individuals. In Switzerland, organisations play a much greater role in financing politics. The difference is striking – even when accounting for national variations in data collection and categorisation.

Fernando Casal Bértoa, a political scientist at the University of Nottingham, sees the reliance on donations by organisations as a sign of weakness in Switzerland’s regulations. The country imposes no upper limits on donations. This is particularly problematic in the case of legal entities – especially corporations.

“By definition, companies do not serve the public good,” he says. Corporations that receive government contracts, he argues, face a clear conflict of interest.

To strengthen public trust in politics, there should be limits on financial influence and mechanisms to avoid a “financial arms race,” Casal Bértoa argues. “If unlimited spending is allowed, it encourages unlimited donations. The question is: where is the money coming from?”

According to Casal Bértoa, the Council of Europe recommends banning corporate donations entirely – a stark contrast to Switzerland’s current rules. A 2021 EU studyExternal link found that only five EU countries allow donations from state-owned firms. In most of Europe, Axpo’s donation would have been illegal.

Half of all EU member states ban political donations from companies that receive large state contracts – such as car manufacturers. In 13 EU countries, donations from legal entities are completely prohibited.

Swiss parties rely on donations

Wouter Wolfs, another political scientist at the university of Leuven and an expert in party finances, sees Switzerland’s lack of donation limits as problematic for another reason.

“At the end of the day, it’s the arguments that should count – not the advertising budgets,” he says. Voters should not be under the impression that political influence can be bought, he says. This perception would be particularly troubling in Switzerland, where there is no state financing for political parties.

Swiss parties function as private associations and receive no direct state support. Only parliamentary groups receive public funds – for office costs, for example. In 2024, that support totalled CHF7.4 million. Calculating the funding for parliamentary groups as a proportion of declared party revenue, public funding makes up about 25% of party finances –  well below the EU average.

Wolfs believes transparency only builds trust when parties operate on a relatively equal footing. That’s why a modest level of public financing is important. “Parties should be neither puppets of the state nor playthings of wealthy donors,” he says. Striking a balance between public funding and private donations is essential, in his view.

According to the data, only Malta provides less public party funding than Switzerland. On average, more than half of party funding in the EU comes from public sources. In Ireland, political parties are almost entirely funded by taxpayers.

Audit office: the data isn’t enough

In late August 2025, Switzerland’s Federal Audit Office published political party revenues for the second time. In 2024, parties declared income of CHF22.4 million. But the oversight body concluded that the available data still doesn’t provide “a comprehensive picture of political financing”. A sobering verdict on Switzerland’s young transparency laws – especially from the very authority tasked with enforcing them.

Contributors: Jennifer Steiner and Luca Obertüfer

Edited by Benjamin von Wyl; translated from German by Catherine Hickley/ds

The research in this article was done in the framework of the Prix Média NewcomerExternal link; all the data is available on the WAV Recherchekollektiv’s platformExternal link