In political practice, election results can now be quite complicated even in Bavaria, at least since the CSU lost its absolute majority for the first time in 2008. Presumably with wise foresight, there has been a simpler alternative since the majority approved the Bavarian Constitution in 1946, namely yes or no. One way or another – and only one way or the other – you can vote in a referendum, and it was precisely in such a referendum that the Bavarians voted yes in 1995 and also introduced referendums at the local level. Last election Sunday, citizens in 18 municipalities were also able to decide on this and that. And then things often got complicated again.
A referendum usually occurs when enough citizens do not like a decision made by their respective city or municipal councils – and this often does not suit these councils, which is why they like to oppose the citizens’ request with their own council request. Then there are two decisions on the same topic. And Jesus is said to have said in the Sermon on the Mount: “Let your words be: Yes yes, no no.” But if most people say yes to both decisions, they might as well have said no twice. So in such cases there is still a key question as to what should apply.
This was the case, for example, in the Upper Bavarian district town of Weilheim. Basically, the question was whether the municipal utility should build its district heating center on the site of a former garden center or a little closer to the outskirts of the city. The two yes/no questions were much more complicated and each took up several lines of text in the relevant local newspaper. The debate was even more heated, and in the end the citizens’ answer was yes and no, in other words, gardening.
The people of Wallgau in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen district made it refreshingly easy for themselves in their very first referendum. Photovoltaics on the site of a gravel works? Neither side campaigned or even did any persuasion work. Just asked. The answer was surprisingly clear: no. The reaction is hardly more complicated: Then don’t.