Today, on May 20, 2026, the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt approved the new Cultural Promotion Act. This is good news, as cultural funding in Saxony-Anhalt now finally has a legal basis. The consultation with cultural stakeholders has resulted in some significant improvements. For example, many optional provisions have been converted into binding formulations, youth art schools are now explicitly funded, a regular dialog with cultural professionals on the goals and effectiveness of cultural funding is now enshrined in the law, as is a state cultural report per electoral term, and the lower fee limits of the cultural associations at federal level are now taken into account (instead of just observed). These changes were largely introduced by the parliamentary group Die Linke.
Even more far-reaching improvements, as demanded by the BBK, were taken up by the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen parliamentary group, but fell through in the vote. Central to this was the binding definition of a fixed minimum amount for cultural funding (1.5% of the state budget). The BBK would also have very much welcomed the fact that cultural funding should be a mandatory task for local authorities and that creative artists should be involved in the creation of funding guidelines, criteria and procedures for cultural funding. The BBK would also have found the regulation that artists should have permanent seats on juries, that the juries should have gender parity and rotate regularly very useful.
Conclusion: An important step has been taken, but the new Cultural Promotion Act is not ideal from the BBK’s point of view.
The debate and the vote can be watched on video at https://www.landtag.sachsen-anhalt.de/51-sitzungsperiode#.
The version adopted by the CDU, SPD, FDP, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, Die Linke and the non-attached MP (with the AfD abstaining) can be downloaded here: https://padoka.landtag.sachsen-anhalt.de/files/drs/wp8/drs/d6972vbe.pdf.