La coalition mondiale pour la démocratie

Airport Munich: citizens against third runway

Airport Munich: citizens against third runway

20-06-2012

On Sunday 17 June one third of Munich’s residents participated in the decision whether a third runway should be built at the airport of Bavaria’s capital. According to the preliminary final result 54,3 % opposed the infrastructure project while 45,7% voted in favour.

The decision held at local level is a clear sign that citizens’ direct participation in political decisions is necessary in order to avoid long-lasting controversy as the case of building the train station in Stuttgart – “Stuttgart 21” – had shown.

In particular, voters had two questions to answer at the ballot box: The city of Munich, which owns 23 % of the airport, asked its residents whether it should support the construction of the third runway through its vote in the company board. This vote was opposed by a citizens’ initiative at local level (“Bürgerentscheid”) which pled for not extending the airport.

Arguments by supporters were job creation of 11.000 additional jobs and more than 10 million extra passengers. However, these arguments could not convince the opponents who questioned the costs of €1,2 billion and the general need of the project.

To become effective more than 10 % of Munich’s roughly one million residents had to participate in the decision. This threshold was already reached by postal voting.

Text by Cora Pfafferott

Further information: http://www.airportwatch.org.uk, http://www.mehr-demokratie.de

Sceau

Democracy International est une association enregistrée en Allemagne
(eingetragener Verein e.V.).

Gürzenichstraße 21 a-c
50667 Cologne
Allemagne
Tel.: +49 (0) 221 669 66 50
Fax: +49 (0) 221 669 66 599
Email: contact@democracy-international.org

Amtsgericht Köln
VR-Nr. 17139

Sceau complet

Compte en banque

Democracy International e.V.
IBAN: DE 58370205000001515101
BIC: BFSWDE33XXX

Bank für Sozialwirtschaft
Konto: 1515101
BLZ: 37020500

Inscrivez-vous

À nos nouvelles, nos analyses et nos reportages concernant la démocratie directe partout sur la planète!

Subscribe

Suivez nos activités

randomness