44% for AfD in Saxony-Anhalt; Merz Threatens Federal Coercion
September 26, 2026 · Frisian News
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The AfD won 44% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt on September 6, leaving lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund three seats short of a majority but within reach of the minister-presidency. Chancellor Merz responded by threatening federal coercion under Article 37 of the Basic Law, a clause no German government has ever used.
Forty-four percent of Saxony-Anhalt voters backed the AfD on September 6, according to Sueddeutsche Zeitung, leaving the party three seats short of an absolute majority but close enough to make lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund a credible candidate for minister-president. That result prompted Chancellor Friedrich Merz to invoke a constitutional clause no federal government has ever used.
Article 37 of the Basic Law defines what constitutional lawyers call the Bundeszwang, or federal coercion. It allows the federal government to compel a state to fulfill its federal duties, with the consent of the Bundesrat by absolute majority. The provision grants the federal government and any commissioner it appoints the right to issue binding instructions to all state authorities. Legal experts cited by t-online describe it as a "rusty sword": it has sat unused since the Basic Law came into force.
Merz drew it anyway. "The Basic Law also applies to Saxony-Anhalt," he told reporters in Berlin, according to t-online and focus.de. "If boundaries are crossed there, I can tell you we will do everything from the federal government's perspective to correct that." He named immigration and foreigners policy specifically as areas covered by the constitutional duty of federal loyalty.
The AfD holds 39 seats in the new Saxony-Anhalt Landtag, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reports, three short of the 42 votes needed in the first two rounds of a minister-president ballot. In a third round a simple majority suffices, meaning Siegmund could win on AfD votes alone if enough members from other factions abstain. The BSW, which against polling expectations entered the Landtag with 5 seats, is so far the only party openly willing to cooperate, though its lead candidate Thomas Schulze has proposed a non-partisan minister-president instead.
Article 37 is narrower than some politicians have implied. Constitutional lawyer Oliver Lepsius of the University of Münster told BR24 that Bundeszwang applies only where a state fails to execute federal law, not to state-level policy in education or policing, which fall outside federal competence. The procedure runs from federal instructions to a formal Mängelrüge and only then to coercion, with Bundesrat consent required for the final coercion step. Lepsius described the most likely form as sequestration: "The part of state power that refuses is suspended." Dissolving the government entirely would be a separate, highly contested move.
SPD parliamentary manager Dirk Wiese, the Greens, and the Left Party all backed the threat, as focus.de reports. The Greens cited Siegmund's campaign statements about using weapons in what he called a remigration and deportation offensive. Baden-Württemberg Finance Minister Daniel Bayaz of the Greens floated financial consequences on platform X, mentioning the Länderfinanzausgleich, though focus.de notes the federal fiscal equalisation mechanism is itself constitutionally protected.
Constitutional expert Heiko Meiertöns wrote on Verfassungsblog, cited by t-online, that changes to the state Verfassungsschutz could give specific legal grounds for federal action. But political scientist Philipp Adorf of Bonn told BR24 the move would likely hand the AfD exactly what it wants: "If the federal government were to really intervene, arguing something is not being implemented, the AfD could say: Look, even if the people vote for a different government, the powers in Berlin will never accept it." In a 2024 ARD summer interview, cited by BR24, AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla said an AfD-led state would refuse the Königsteiner Schlüssel, the federal refugee distribution key. The party's Saxony-Anhalt election programme contained no explicit refusal stance on federal obligations, BR24 reports.
Threatening a constitutional tool that has never been deployed, against a party that just won 44% of the regional vote, tells you less about Berlin's resolve than about how little else it has.
Published September 26, 2026 · Frisian News