EU Weighs Freezing Saxony-Anhalt Funds After AfD Election Win

Brussels is openly discussing whether EU funding for Saxony-Anhalt could be frozen if an AfD-led state government breaches fundamental rights or rule-of-law standards following the party’s election win, according to Tagesschau.

The eastern German state is due to receive €2.95bn from the EU’s 2021-27 budget, financing projects ranging from school and sports-hall renovations to childcare facilities and modern medical equipment.

Saxony-Anhalt receives more EU regional funding per resident than any other German state.

Brussels Has Used Funding Pressure Before

Daniel Freund, a Green member of the European Parliament, said the European Commission could withhold money if an AfD government acted against EU principles.

From Freund’s perspective, the AfD acts against both the European project and the EU, “and then the European Commission would, if necessary, also have to withhold funds.”

Brussels has previously frozen funding destined for Hungary and Poland.

Freund was among the European lawmakers who pushed to withhold up to €18 billion in funding from Hungary under former prime minister Viktor Orban.

Payments intended for Poland were also temporarily frozen.

“We have seen in both countries that after EU funds were frozen, there were changes of government, and that the new governments had a significantly better relationship with the European institutions,” Freund said.

He argued that similar measures could be considered for Saxony-Anhalt if its government challenged the rule of law or discriminated against minorities.

Structural Funds Could Be Targeted

The EU can halt payments where funding could contribute to corruption or breaches of the rule of law.

In Germany, such measures can also apply at the state level through structural funds, which the Länder largely administer.

Luise Quaritsch of the Jacques Delors Center in Berlin said the sums involved currently amount to about €500 million a year, equivalent to roughly 20% of Saxony-Anhalt’s investment spending.

Freezing those funds could significantly affect regional and economic development programs and create political costs for the state government, she said.

The potential exposure extends across public infrastructure and services supported by EU money, including schools, gymnasiums, childcare centers and hospitals.

AfD Dismisses Funding Threat

The AfD rejected the discussion.

“We laugh at our partisan opponents, who are now also seeking to disadvantage us undemocratically at EU level. Because they have long been defenseless against us in political competition,” said Bernd Baumann, parliamentary managing director of the AfD group in the Bundestag.

The SPD, meanwhile, wants Saxony-Anhalt to continue benefiting from EU funding under the bloc’s next budget, covering 2028 to 2034.

But Matthias Ecke, an SPD member of the European Parliament, said access to those funds remained tied to the EU’s fundamental values.

“I assume that Saxony-Anhalt will continue to uphold these values, or that the federal government will ensure that it does,” Ecke said.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz has also said that the federal government could, if necessary, enforce Germany’s Basic Law in Saxony-Anhalt.