Merz Threatens AfD with Bundeszwang After CDU's Sachsen-Anhalt Defeat

One day after the CDU suffered a historic electoral defeat in Sachsen-Anhalt, Chancellor Friedrich Merz invoked Article 37 of the Grundgesetz — the so-called Bundeszwang, or federal coercion — as a warning to a possible AfD-led state government in Sachsen-Anhalt. The mechanism allows the federal government, with the consent of the Bundesrat, to compel a deviant state government to fulfill its constitutional duties. Merz's warning, issued just a day after the CDU's vote share in Sachsen-Anhalt was halved, is intended not only for the AfD in that state but also to deter imitators elsewhere. The CDU is bracing for what is expected to be its worst election result in its 76-year history on September 20. The article notes that in the Weimar Republic, the use of such an instrument once ended in a coup. The piece appears in the current issue of the publication.