It all started with a clear statement: Lower Bavaria should have an administrative court in the Freyung-Grafenau district because it is the only district that does not yet have one and rural areas should be strengthened. The Bavarian Prime Minister announced this in 2020. Although his name was Markus Söder, one could still assume that his office had a certain degree of reliability.
Now, more than four years later, Lower Bavaria still does not have an administrative court, but Bavarian history is richer with a farce that no cabaret artist can dream up, not even a cabaret artist. The short version goes like this: The court should go to Freyung, to Grafenau, Landshut, Deggendorf or maybe to Passau?
Lower Bavaria has around 250 cities and municipalities, and the likelihood that one after the other will be used as a location for an administrative court in the next few years is high. However, the probability that the administrative court will actually come is low. At least when the CSU and Free Voters govern. They can’t agree. Which brings us to the long version. She is a prime example of how not to do this in a coalition that is supposed to be a team.
Trouble began in Bavaria in 2020 when Söder forgot to inform his coalition partner about plans for a new court. Then the FW didn’t want it in Freyung like the CSU, but in Grafenau. Because there is a train station there, they said. And coincidentally also a FW mayor, said the CSU. The project was buried, only to be revived in 2021 after a compromise. Of course there was an argument, this time Aiwanger had not agreed. But at least a solution. Finally.
So the court was supposed to go to Freyung, and Grafenau was given a special testing center from the State Office for Weights and Measures, which reports to Aiwanger’s ministry. He was celebrated in the region for 15 jobs. The administrative court in Freyung promised by the CSU but with 50 jobs? Did not come. The FW didn’t want to. They apparently no longer remembered that their chairman had “accepted” the location in June 2021. In January 2024, the Interior Minister announced the final end. In Freyung they don’t know what to do with the land they bought for the court, a seven-figure sum. And the FW and CSU continue to argue. It is said that Deggendorf likes Aiwanger as a location. “Passau!” shouts a CSU city councilor from Passau.
What do the administrative judges say about this? There is no technical reason for the relocation from Regensburg to Lower Bavaria, said the association’s chairwoman two years ago. But well, it’s not about that, it’s about politics.