Former Federal Constitutional Court judge Peter Huber has sharply condemned the German government’s proposed constitutional reform, calling it unconstitutional and warning it would amount to a “coup d’état“.
Speaking to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on March 20, Huber criticised plans of the outgoing coalition of Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), Social Democratic Party (SPD) and The Greens to amend constitutional provisions on state autonomy and public debt.
The proposal aimed to relax Germany’s strict debt brake but Huber insisted such changes would violate the country’s fundamental legal order.
The government wanted to suspend the debt brake in state constitutions, stripping them of their autonomy, he warned. “In my opinion, this is unconstitutional constitutional law. If the regulation were to stand, it would be a coup d’état.”
Huber stressed that Germany’s Länder [federal states] were constitutionally autonomous within a framework of homogeneity, fundamental rights and the federal division of competences. Federal interference, he warned, would reduce states to mere provinces.
He also pointed out that the constitution already limited state borrowing, thereby restricting their financial independence. While these constraints could legally be tightened or lifted, he argued, the decision should rest with state constitutional legislators — not the federal government.
“There is no orderly procedure for this under this Constitution,” Huber said, adding that such a drastic change would require implementation of Article 146 of the Constitution and a nationwide referendum.
Huber was a member of the State Court of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, Chairman of the German Law Faculty Association and Chairman of the Commission for the Determination of Concentration in the Media Sector before he was sworn in as Thuringia state’s interior minister for the CDU.
In 2010, he was elected as a judge to the Federal Constitutional Court by the German Bundestag’s Election Committee and served in that position until his resignation in January 2023.
He earned his law doctorate from the University of Munich with a thesis on constitutional protections in federal systems.
A federalism expert, Huber has consulted for both the German Jurists’ Conference and the Bundestag while teaching as a professor. Since 2002, he has held the Chair of Public Law and Political Philosophy at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
Parties negotiating the formation of a new German government have agreed to authorise €500 billion in new debt for infrastructure projects. https://t.co/5f9IVQlzRq
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) March 5, 2025
