Eastern German state premiers are urging the future German government to include people from their states as ministers in order to increase their participation in the country’s governance.
Ever since German unification in 1991, Eastern German states have lagged behind in almost all metrics compared to Western ones. The situation created general discontent among the local population, who mostly embraced the far-right proposals of Alternative for Germany (AfD).
AfD is constantly the most-voted party in most states for local and national elections. It doesn’t directly govern any local state due to the cordon-sanitaire that other parties established against it.
The presidents of the five states met in Berlin on Thursday, advocating for more presence in the new German government of Friedrich Merz and for the continuation of the representative for Eastern Germany, a role of coordination that is rumoured to be dropped.
The State President of Thuringia, Mario Voigt, of the ruling CDU party, said that important issues for the country are already realities in Eastern Germany and thus, the government should be more invested in the area as “look ahead, not in the rearview mirror.”
His colleagues of Saxony and Brandenburg, Michael Kretschmer (CDU) and Dietmar Woidke (SPD), more explicitly said before the meeting that the new government should have at least three ministers hailing from the East out of the 15 total ministers. Woidke said that it would be appropriate for the area’s population size.
The issue of Eastern appointments in the future Merz cabinet was mentioned already in a statement by the Minister-Presidents of East Germany released in March. Merz so far hasn’t committed to appointing Eastern German ministers.
The statement also called for special consideration for Eastern German states in federal fund allocation, and after the meeting, the Minister-President of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Manuela Schwesig (SPD), mentioned that the federal state should quickly disburse special infrastructure funds that were promised for states and municipalities to help the region.
Another issue of contention regards a change in the state fiscal equalisation system, which currently sees the richest Western states giving almost two-thirds of funds to poorer Eastern states. Only last year, Saxony received €3.2 billion, Thuringia just over €2 billion, and Saxony-Anhalt €1.8 billion.
The current Commissioner for Eastern Germany, Carsten Schneider, proposed revising the system to no longer distribute funds according to population size and tax revenue but with a targeted system for municipalities with low investment potential.
In January, Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder seemed to favour keeping the fiscal equalisation system only for Eastern states and mentioned possible close coordination with Saxony and Thuringia. However, more recent proposals for the budgetary equalisation system seem to drop this idea.
