The discussion was moderated by Maria Leissner, Secretary General of Community of Democracies with Luis Alberto Lacalle, former President of Uruguay and. Dr Peter Hack, former MP of Hungary, law professor and board member of Transparency International as presenters. The audience consisted of Leaders Engaged with Democracies programme participants in Tunisia and Moldova who work on democratic transition issues. “There’s no perfect system, but let’s make it as less imperfect as we can” stated President Lacalle, who also stressed that control and specially “public control” is a crucial pillar of any financing system. He made clear that cheaper campaigns must be implemented in order to give “less possibilities to receiving money with conditions” and that “messages and not propaganda” should be the backbone of the political campaigns.
Peter Hack addressed why political parties financing is a difficult problem with “transparency, transparency and transparency”. According to Mr Hack, regulations must be implemented to control how private money is given and spent in the political parties and campaigns to make sure that “public will is always stronger than the money”
Watch again the full LEND webinar here
