A defeat for the hunter president and CSU politician Ernst Weidenbusch and the leadership of the Bavarian Hunting Association (BJV): The Munich I regional court has confirmed the interim injunction against the livestream transmission of the association’s general meeting from Weiden in March. A public broadcast of the meeting on the Internet, as planned by the Presidium, was inadmissible, according to the court’s announcement on Thursday. The verdict is not final and the hunting association can appeal against it.
The chairman of the BJV Memmingen district group, Andreas Ruepp, who has been one of the strongest Weidenbusch critics in the association’s internal disputes for years, had obtained the interim injunction. He was very pleased with the judge’s verdict. “I want our delegates to be able to discuss with each other internally and without reservations at the general meetings,” he said. “But that is not possible if a general meeting is broadcast uncontrolled to the world.” Weidenbusch and the BJV initially did not comment because they did not yet have the reasons for the judgment.
The district court expressly affirmed Ruepp’s conviction. Member meetings of associations are generally not public, according to the statement. For hybrid meetings, the invitation must already state how members can exercise their right to participate and speak, the right to ask questions and make proposals, the right to vote and to stand for election, and the right to vote. This is not the case with a mere live broadcast, in which the members are only given the role of listener. The character of the general meeting as fundamentally non-public would be lost.
The court is convinced that “with knowledge of a live broadcast, the behavior of the people present is different.” Spontaneous and unbiased speaking and discussions can be inhibited, especially when it comes to sensitive and critical agenda items. The court expressly did not follow the arguments that Weidenbusch had expressed in the hearing at the beginning of April. The hunter president stated, among other things, that the BJV state meeting in 2023 had already taken place as a hybrid event with unrestricted transmission on the Internet and that the press had also reported on the meetings in the past.
Shortly after the verdict was announced, the crisis meeting took place because of the ongoing dispute in the hunting association, which Vice Prime Minister and Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) had asked Weidenbusch and other BJV leaders and their critics to attend. Since Weidenbusch was elected BJV president in December 2020, there have been massive complaints about his leadership style, from volunteers and full-time employees alike. We are talking about shouting attacks, excessive threats and bans from the BJV office in Feldkirchen.
Aiwanger, who is himself a passionate hunter, first urged the disputing parties to unite at the state assembly. Obviously without success. The current dispute revolves around the exclusion of a hunter district group from the BJV. Two hours were scheduled for the emergency meeting on Thursday. Aiwanger spoke afterwards of a constructive atmosphere. “It also became clear today that many problems can be resolved quickly in a personal conversation,” he said and announced another “close exchange” between those involved. Nothing was known about the content of the conversation.