Germany debates whether federal coercion could be used if AfD governs Saxony-Anhalt

After Alternative for Germany (AfD) won close to 44 percent in the Saxony-Anhalt state election on September 6, 2026, a debate opened in Berlin over whether the federal government could compel a state to follow the constitution if an AfD-led administration tried to implement extremist policies.

Legal backstop rarely discussed — and never used

Chancellor Friedrich Merz responded to the election result by pointing to the instruments contained in the German Basic Law. In Berlin's terms, the tool under discussion is Bundeszwang, often rendered in English as “federal coercion.” Merz warned that Berlin would act if constitutional limits were crossed. He said: "If certain limits are crossed there, I can tell you that from the perspective of the federal government we will do everything to correct that. The Basic Law applies in Saxony-Anhalt."

Legal scholars note that Article 37 of the Basic Law, which provides for federal measures against a state that refuses to fulfil its constitutional duties, is an exceptional device. "The term dramatic is entirely appropriate," said Anna-Bettina Kaiser, professor of law at Humboldt University in Berlin, explaining that Article 37 is conceived as a last resort and has never been applied in postwar Germany.

Kaiser adds that Article 37 envisages specific powers: with Bundesrat approval the federal government could appoint a commissioner empowered to issue binding instructions and could withhold certain federal transfers. However, the deployment of the Bundeswehr would require a separate declaration of an internal state of emergency, she said: "Article 37 does indeed provide for such a commissioner who would have the right to issue binding directives."

SPD figures in Berlin have echoed the chancellor's warnings. Dirk Wiese, parliamentary director of the Social Democratic Party’s group in the Bundestag, said the Basic Law contains mechanisms that can impose constitutional behaviour through binding orders if needed: "If the so-called Putin coalition of AfD and BSW for the first time enables a right-wing extremist to become a state premier, it is good to know that the Basic Law provides mechanisms by which the constitutional conduct of a state, if necessary, can be imposed also by binding orders."

Any activation of federal coercion would be politically and legally fraught. German governments and Länder have traditionally resolved disputes in courts or through political negotiation. Commentators point to Spain’s 2017 suspension of Catalan autonomy as an international example of a centre–region clash, but say that invoking a comparable mechanism in Germany would require a very serious breach of the constitutional order.

For now the discussion in Berlin remains largely hypothetical and centred on two practical questions: which measures Article 37 would permit in concrete terms, and how a federal response could be implemented without permanently undermining state autonomy.

Photo: press material from the event