Loan scandal raises questions about party funding
Ljubljana, 17 December - The Democratic Party (SDS) became entangled in a loan scandal after taking out a EUR 450,000 loan from an individual from Bosnia and Herzegovina half a year before the general election. The loan came from Dijana Đuđić, who is also believed to have been involved in laundering millions of euro at NKBM bank, and was promptly returned after media started questioning its origin and legality.
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The logo of the Democrats (SDS).
Photo: Vesna Pušnik Brezovnik/STA
The law stipulates that a party can take out a loan from an individual, but only up to ten times the value of the average gross monthly pay per year, with the Court of Audit determining this meant that the statutory ceiling for party financing from individuals stood at EUR 15,800.
The court launched an inquiry into the loan and indicted the party in March over this and another loan the SDS took out from publisher Nova Obzorja, in which it had a 44.2% stake it had used to secure the loan from Đuđić, earlier in 2017.
Tomaž Vesel, the president of the Court of Audit, said the court had indicted the party because it had found irregularities with the two loans in a pre-audit launched following media reports. At that time the court had not decided whether it would undertake a comprehensive audit of the party's operations.
By that moment, the SDS had already broken the contract with Đuđić and had repaid the loan. The party boss, Janez Janša, said the SDS would pay any fine determined by the authorities, adding that the party had interpreted the party financing rules differently.
The loan raised a series of questions about party financing, and the financing of politics more broadly, since several media affiliated with the SDS subsequently received funding from companies with links to the Hungarian government. A parliamentary inquiry will probably be established to look into the matter.