Interior Minister for Thuringia, Georg Maier of the SPD, warned of a potential “state coup” amid strong polling figures for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Saxony-Anhalt. This warning follows an announcement by AfD top candidate Ulrich Siegmund that, should they win power, they plan to fill between 150 and 200 positions within the state administration.
Maier stated that the AfD’s plans are in stark contradiction with established law. According to him, civil service employees cannot be massively reassigned at will; German civil service law mandates a rigorous selection process based on clearly defined professional profiles. Furthermore, all civil servants are required to maintain absolute constitutional loyalty. They must commit their entire conduct to the free democratic basic order and actively defend its preservation.
Maier added that it was obvious that officials from the AfD’s local chapter in Saxony-Anhalt, which the Constitution Protection Agency has classified as right-wing extremist, would not meet these criteria. He warned that if the AfD were to bypass these fundamental principles of the German civil service, it would take on the character of a state coup.
The complexity of the proposed changes was further detailed by Siegmund when he told the “Mitteldeutsche Zeitung” that state-level positions, as well as roles in state-owned companies, could be reallocated. This scope is said to extend beyond ministerial posts and state secretaries’ offices to include managerial positions at the working level and chief roles in various state facilities.
The political criticism was echoed by Irene Mihalic, the parliamentary group leader for the Greens, who told RND that “any democrat must understand the AfD’s plans as a threat to the free democratic basic order”. She suggested that such actions would only serve to consolidate the AfD’s power rather than benefit the state and its citizens. She concluded that the only correct course of action is to prevent the AfD from coming close to achieving a governing majority if they value democracy and freedom.
These statements come against a backdrop where the AfD recently polled at 41 percent in Saxony-Anhalt, bringing them close to an absolute majority in the state parliament.