The far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party has reportedly been exploring executive and administrative devices, similar to those used by Donald Trump, to consolidate control. This comes as the party has become a major force in the Bundestag since the 2017 general election and has led nationwide in opinion polls.
The AfD's national co-leader, Alice Weidel, has indicated that if the party forms a government after the federal election scheduled for 2029, Germany would abandon the euro and exit the Schengen border-free travel area.
The German constitution includes provisions for banning political parties deemed hostile to its fundamental liberal democratic principles. Senior German politicians have called for an application to the constitutional court to ban the AfD, or at least its most extreme factions, on these grounds.
The federal republic's constitutional, political, and educational systems are designed to prevent a collapse similar to the Weimar republic's descent into dictatorship in 1933. Article 37 of the constitution, which permits federal authorities to overrule anti-constitutional behaviour by the states, has not been used in the republic's 77-year history.