Germany’s ministry of construction has submitted a new draft law that would give municipalities the right to buy up property rather than let it fall into the hands of “enemies of the constitution”.
That is the term most commonly applied to members of the biggest opposition party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), and others on the Right.
On April 2, construction minister Verena Hubertz (Social Democratic Party, SPD) presented the new “Bill on the Modernisation of Urban Planning and Regional Planning Legislation”, promising easier new builds and safer cityscapes.
“The Building Code upgrade provides a boost for local planning and will serve as a toolkit for climate adaptation, accelerated construction and more housing,” the minister said.
The ministry’s press release touted the draft law’s merits in making re-zoning easier, facilitating environmental audits and pushing for digitalisation and transparency.
One critical section of the new law, though, was omitted from the statement – and left deeply buried within the 174-page document.
The new bill, should it be adopted by parliament in its current form, would give German municipalities a right of first refusal to buy up properties that are about to be sold to people who would use them for “activities directed against the free democratic basic order, provided that the facts justify the assumption that the purchaser actively supports the realisation of such activities”.
To exercise that right, municipalities would be authorised to request information about prospective buyers from the Verfassungsschutz, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, as well as from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). The Verfassungsschutz operates under the authority of the Interior Ministry and is therefore directly subject to the political direction of the government.
The bill also clarifies that these activities would not have to be illegal for the municipality to step in: “Anti-constitutional activities are characterised by active, though not necessarily militant, aggressive or illegal, measures aimed at achieving their objectives. They must be objectively capable of having political consequences in the short or long term.”
In the past, the label of “anti-constitutionality” has habitually been applied to the AfD by mainstream politics and media. SPD especially has repeatedly pushed for labelling AfD “anti-constitutional” with the goal of banning the entire party outright.
Observers are warning that the new law may set the stage for political “ideology tests” for real estate buyers – as the municipality could use its right of first refusal to buy up properties that right-wingers would be interested in acquiring.
The AfD’s parliamentary speaker for construction, Marc Bernhard, called the plans “unconstitutional extremism by the SPD”.
AfD is Germany’s biggest opposition party. At the 2025 general election the right-wingers received almost 21 per cent of the vote. Current polls see AfD ahead of the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) at 26 versus 25 per cent.
