THE HAGUE, 17/04/07 - The Socialist Party (SP) is the richest party in the Netherlands. As long as there is no legislation banning its communist-style payments system, its kitty will grow annually by 12 million euros, according to an analysis by De Pers newspaper.

Thanks to big wins in the Lower House, Upper House and local council elections, the SP has grown to a party with 512 public representatives at all levels. Under SP party rules, they must contribute their government-paid salaries to the party kitty, in exchange for a lower payment. The former Home Affairs Minister had announced he wanted to ban this financing structure, but legislation has not yet materialised.

The 512 SP public representatives boost the party kitty annually by 8.1 million euros. Together with the annual contributions of 20 euros from the approximately 52,000 SP members, this goes up to 9.1 million euros. Additionally, the party itself, like all parties with MPs, receives a direct subsidy from the Home Affairs Minister - this was about 3 million euros in 2005.

As a result, around 12 million euros flows in annually. Including property, the SP is the richest party in the Netherlands by a long way. In 2005, its buildings were on the balance sheet at nearly 2.5 million euros, but are worth much more, according to De Pers.

The SP already conducted the most expensive campaigns of all the parties in the last elections and is the fastest-growing party. Only the Christian democrats (CDA) with 69,560 members and Labour (PvdA) with 62,864 members are still bigger, according to data from the Netherlands Political Parties Documentation Centre (DNPP).