Overview
- Presenting the plan at a CSU lawmakers' meeting at Kloster Banz, the Bavarian leader called for dissolving or consolidating Länder with fewer than three million residents.
- Söder did not name specific targets and instead cited North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg as performance benchmarks.
- Eight of Germany’s 16 states fall below the 3‑million threshold, a group that includes city-states such as Hamburg and Bremen as well as regions like Saarland and Thuringia.
- He proposes granting Länder limited tax autonomy, allowing rate changes within about two percentage points and letting states set inheritance tax rates.
- Söder framed the push as a response to fiscal imbalances, noting Bavaria’s €9.77 billion equalization payment last year, while any reorganization would require a Bundestag law under Article 29 and approval by voters in referendums.