39. Are there limits on the amount a political party can spend?

'Election campaign spending in Italy is regulated by law 515/1993 (as amended), for both political parties and candidates. As for political parties, article 10 states that 'political parties cannot spend more than the amount corresponding to the multiplication of 1,00 euro times the total number of citizens of the Italian Republic who are registered for the election of the Chamber of Deputies and for the elections of the Senate of the Republic' (according to recent calculations, this amounts to 98 million euro per political party, approximately) (...) Law No. 96/2012 fixed the maximum amount for the electoral expenditures also for the European Parliament (1 EUR multiplied by the number of persons eligible to vote for the Chamber of Deputies) and Municipal Councils: in this case the maximum amount varies according to the size of the city/town and depending on the post the candidate runs for (whether mayor or city councilman); in addition, political parties are allowed to spend up to a maximum of 1 EUR multiplied by the number of persons eligible to vote for the Town Council.'

Source: Electoral integrity project (2016) Money, Politics, Transparency. Country report:Italy.

Limits apply to election campaigns at any level ( limits for European and local elections were introduced only in 2012, whereas national and regional election spending limits are in place since 1993)