Overview
- A spokesman for the Innenministerkonferenz confirmed late Wednesday that the conference has replaced its long-standing practice of requiring no active objections with a formal rule that 13 of 16 state votes suffice for decisions.
- The change was taken in a written Umlaufbeschluss rather than at a public plenary meeting, reflecting a fast, internal procedural move by the state interior ministers.
- The reform responds directly to recent AfD electoral gains, especially the September Saxony-Anhalt result led by Ulrich Siegmund, and aims to prevent a single AfD interior minister from vetoing collective measures on policing and security.
- Under the new rule the federal interior minister remains a permanent guest with the right to speak and table motions but continues to have no vote, and the IMK’s prior unanimity was an informal practice rather than a codified procedure.
- The shift could preserve inter‑state coordination on law enforcement and security, change how states negotiate compromises, and make upcoming appointments in states won by the AfD a key test of the new voting rule.