The citizens’ initiative “Preserve green spaces” has found a majority in the city council. The Green/Pink List and CSU/Free Voters factions announced on Monday evening that they would vote in Wednesday’s general assembly to accept the demands. This means that a possible referendum is off the table. After this had recently become more and more likely, this is a surprising turn of events.
Because the green-red town hall coalition had not been able to agree on a compromise with the initiators of the citizens’ initiative, despite constructive talks. Both the Greens and the SPD had rejected the demands as too undifferentiated and too radical. The tenor: They robbed the city of all creative freedom.
Now the Greens have changed their minds. The desire for more efficient protection of green spaces is widespread in Munich and is getting louder, they said on Monday evening. “We think it’s wrong to smash this suggestion from the citizenry with a disdainful ‘no’ – even if the resolution text of the citizens’ petition and the assessment basis mentioned is not the perfect instrument.”
A request for advice could also have been imagined, said parliamentary group leader Mona Fuchs. In this way, the city politicians could have presented their own ideas to the citizens in a vote by asking a second question. But there would not have been a majority for this – the SPD stuck to its rejection.
The CSU jumped up for that. “We stand by the preservation of green spaces in our city,” it said in a statement. “Especially in densely populated metropolitan areas, we need oases of calm.” Group leader Manuel Pretzl said that the topic had been discussed in detail in the group meeting and that a large majority had voted in favor of the takeover.
SPD faction leader Christian Müller accused the CSU of “pure opportunism”. After all, she regularly reproaches the coalition in the planning committee for the missing housing construction targets. “Obviously, the CSU intends to finally say goodbye to the political discourse.” Stefan Hofmeir, one of the initiators of the citizens’ initiative, was very satisfied: “We are pleased that we were able to convince the town hall.”