Could Germans’ cherished right to drive as fast as they like on the autobahn soon be outlawed?

With the country’s center-left Social Democrats now leading the polls ahead of this month’s federal election, we shouldn’t rule it out: If voted in, they promise to limit motorway speeds to a maximum of 130 km per hour (81 miles per hour). Possible coalition partners, the Greens and Left party, also want a highway speed cap.

For libertarians and petrol-heads, not to mention the German engineers who spent decades building ever more powerful combustion engines, this would be hugely disappointing.