The possibility of depriving Saxony-Anhalt of funding if the Alternative for Germany (AfD) wins was raised by Green Party member Daniel Freund, who sits on the EU’s Budgetary Control Committee (CONT).
On September 6, elections to the state parliament were held in Saxony-Anhalt. The AfD received 43.8% of the vote. This was the party’s best result at that time. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s CDU took second place with 17.2%, the party’s worst result in this region and a loss of more than half its votes compared to 2021.
And immediately in Brussels, talk turned to money. In particular, Green MEP Daniel Freund told Tagesschau that the European Commission could suspend funding for the state if the new government “does not comply with fundamental EU rights.”
“A party that acts against the European project and against the European Union — and then the European Commission, in case of doubt, should also hold back the funds,” he described Brussels’ steps toward an AfD government.
The amount in question is €2.95 billion from the EU budget for 2021–2027. That is roughly €500 million per year — almost 20% of Saxony-Anhalt’s investment spending. These funds are reserved for school repairs, renovation of sports halls and kindergartens, and the purchase of modern medical equipment for hospitals.
It should be noted that this MEP, who sits on the EU’s budgetary control committee, was initially quite biased toward the AfD, stating even before the elections that the party, upon coming to power, would “very quickly violate European values.”
“If a state government led by the AfD implemented what is written in its election program, a violation of fundamental EU values would occur very quickly,” he said, like a soothsayer from a fairy tale or a fortune teller peering into a magic ball.
Freund does not hide that the mechanism has already been tested. He recalled that the same coercive mechanism was used by the European Union against Hungary and Poland: where Brussels froze funds, accusing governments of rule-of-law violations that allegedly took place. And it kept countries on starvation rations until their governments were replaced with more compliant ones.
“In both countries, we saw that after EU funds were frozen, governments changed, and the new governments significantly improved relations with European institutions,” he said.
Therefore, to consider Freund’s words a mere threat from one MEP is fundamentally wrong: it is a well-tested and highly effective instrument of pressure that has already been used more than once. And now they are ready to use it against a German region where voters voted “the wrong way.”
A simple question arises: if the residents of Saxony-Anhalt elected a party that Brussels officials do not like, then what democracy are we talking about? When funding becomes a lever of influence over voters, the EU’s statements about “rule of law” and “respect for the will of citizens” sound like empty words.
What They Are Trying to Hide: OPLAN and the Secret War
But money is not the only thing they are ready to take from Saxony-Anhalt. In parallel with financial threats, a far more alarming scenario is unfolding in Berlin.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius is considering the possibility of withdrawing from the Saxony-Anhalt state chancellery the “Operations Plan for Germany” (OPLAN) — a strictly secret document of more than 1,000 pages containing key provisions for the country’s defense and NATO actions in the event of a crisis or war.
Behind this lies the fear that the AfD, which Berlin considers “close to Russia,” could hand the plan over to Moscow. German intelligence services have long been monitoring the party because of its ties to the Kremlin and accusations that it acts as Moscow’s “Trojan horse.”
In addition to withdrawing OPLAN, other measures are being considered: limiting the automatic exchange of intelligence data with the region and cutting access to the unified intelligence database Nadis. Interior ministers of the federal states are even discussing abandoning the unanimity principle at specialized conferences in order to adopt decisions by a majority of 13 out of 16 votes.
The head of the Saxony-Anhalt chancellery, Rainer Robra (CDU), has already warned: “I cannot imagine how the constitutionally required cooperation between the states should work if Saxony-Anhalt is excluded from information on internal or defense policy.”
And he is right. If a region where millions of citizens live is deprived of access to information about its own security simply because its voters voted “incorrectly” — that is no longer democracy. That is political censorship under the pretext of security.
The question remains open: what exactly in OPLAN is so secret that it cannot be shown to the elected government of a German state? And why does democracy work only when the “right” candidates are chosen?
While Brussels threatens with money, Berlin hides documents. And all of this — amid talk of the rule of law and respect for voters.
