The controversial referendum to dissolve the Bavarian state parliament has crashed: Within two weeks, only 204 135 people in all of Bavaria signed up for signature lists in town halls – it would have taken a million. The state returning officer announced on Thursday. This means that the initiative, which is primarily supported by so-called lateral thinkers, but recently also by the AfD, has more than clearly missed its goal. The failure had already become very clear at halftime.
If a million eligible voters had entered the signature lists across Bavaria between October 14 and 27, there would have been a referendum on the dissolution of the state parliament. Alternatively, the state parliament could have dissolved itself beforehand.
Behind the referendum, which is unique in the history of the Free State, were in particular bitter opponents of the Corona policy, especially from the “lateral thinker” scene. At least one of those responsible for the referendum is even targeted by the protection of the constitution: The deputy commissioner of the referendum, Karl Hilz, is assigned to the collective observation object “Security-endangering anti-democratic efforts” by the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution. The AfD, which is itself in the state parliament, decided at a state party conference on the weekend before last to support the referendum.
Thursday’s figures are the preliminary result based on quick reports from 96 independent cities and districts in Bavaria. The final result will be communicated at a later date.
Most recently, a referendum failed in 2014: to the grammar school
The current one is by no means comparable with participation in earlier referendums. The initiative “Save the bees” ran almost out of competition in 2019, in which 18.3 percent of all eligible voters – more than 1.7 million people – took part. At the end of 2013, 14.3 percent of all voters supported the referendum to abolish tuition fees, in the case of the smoking ban referendum in 2009 it was 13.9 percent.
The last referendum to date that failed was in 2014 one on the freedom to choose between eight- and nine-year high school, with 2.9 percent participation or a good 270,000 signatures. Basically, the quorum is ten percent of all eligible voters – only in the case of a referendum to dissolve the state parliament is the number of one million signatures stipulated as a fixed hurdle.