90 Miles From Tyranny

Sunday, April 12, 2026

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New proposals include granting local authorities the right to stop individuals deemed ‘anti-constitutional’ from purchasing real estate in their municipalities.

Germany’s construction ministry has proposed an extraordinary piece of draft legislation that would give local authorities to individuals deemed “enemies of the constitution”, with the proposal tucked away inside a much broader package of planning reforms. The suggested measure can be found deep within a 174-page draft titled the ‘Bill on the Modernisation of Urban Planning and Regional Planning Legislation’, put forward on 2 April by Minister for Housing Verena Hubertz. Publicly, however, the focus of the bill has been bruited as addressing familiar concerns common to many European jurisdictions – speeding up housebuilding, modernising planning processes and helping municipalities manage growth.

Ms Hubertz, a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), described the reforms as a way to make planning law more responsive, saying the Building Code shapes “good housing, safe places and a lively neighbourhood” (Google translation here and hereafter), and that the proposed changes would prioritise new construction, cut through digital bottlenecks and give municipalities increased authority to repurpose derelict property.

The ministry has made much of these uncontroversial proposals, highlighting streamlined change of use, faster environmental assessments and improved digital systems. What they do not draw attention to is the clause that would allow municipalities to step into property transactions on political grounds.

Under that provision, councils would gain a right of first refusal where a property is about to be sold to someone who may use it for “activities directed against the free democratic basic order”. The wording is drawn from Germany’s constitution and is most often heard in political debate about the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany) (AfD), now the country’s largest opposition party, which some critics have accused of using rhetoric that...