CDU leader Frei says federal coercion could be used against an AfD state government

Thorsten Frei, head of the CDU’s parliamentary faction, said that if a state governed by the AfD persistently violates federal law, the government could invoke the rarely used constitutional provision known as Bundeszwang. He stressed that this would be a last-resort action under Article 37, requiring the Bundesrat’s consent to force the state to comply with its obligations. FDP leader Wolfgang Kubicki and legal expert Christoph Degenhart also mentioned the measure, pointing out that it has never been applied in the Federal Republic’s history.

Degenhart suggested that the most extreme form of intervention might involve appointing a commissioner to take over certain state functions, which could then be challenged before the Bundesverfassungsgericht. The discussion follows the AfD’s recent landslide win in the Sachsen-Anhalt state election and its classification as a right-extremist threat by the regional domestic intelligence service.