Scientists: Referendum should push Senate further
27 March 2023
The referendum has failed. But in the view of Potsdam scientist Fritz Reusswig, this does not mean that the initiators have given up all hope of...
POTSDAM/BERLIN
The "Klimaneustart" alliance should not let up even after the failure of its referendum, according to Potsdam scientist Fritz Reusswig. "This petition for a referendum was focused on goals and kept a very low profile when it came to measures," Reusswig, who works at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur on Monday. He said the alliance behind the referendum must now work towards concrete measures, measure the Senate against them and also drive them. "That is the one track I see: staying in dialogue with the Senate about measures," the scientist said.
"I believe that the alliance would also be well advised to promote more climate protection activities in Berlin's civil society and in the business community," said the sociologist. He had supported the referendum, even though he thinks the targets are hardly achievable. "It's not that the business community is completely against it."
From Reusswig's point of view, the outcome of the referendum on Sunday is worth a differentiated look: "With the yes votes, on the one hand we have the convinced ones who said: We have to do this, whatever the cost." But there were also tactical yes votes. The argument in this case was: "It's not realistic, but we'll still vote yes because we want to push the Senate. It was similar with the no votes.
Reusswig doubts whether the referendum would have been successful in a vote on 12 February. "I suspect: if the vote had been held parallel to the House of Representatives election, we would have made the quorum, but would have had more no votes than yes votes," Reusswig said. "Because at that point the red-green-red voters assumed that they wanted this coalition to continue."
Climate-oriented SPD and Green voters had expected their parties to continue governing with the Left - and for that reason had hesitated to vote in such a way that a Red-Green-Red Senate with a law for significantly earlier climate neutrality would have faced problems in implementation, he said. On Sunday, a black-red Senate had been foreseeable. "That's why there were many tactical yes votes," Reusswig said. "But for the same reason, if the vote had been held parallel to the election, there would have been a lot of tactical no votes."
The "Klimaneustart" ['Climate restart'] alliance wanted to achieve that Berlin commits to becoming climate neutral by 2030 and not by 2045 as previously planned. To achieve this, the state's energy transition law was to be amended. In the referendum on Sunday, however, the necessary minimum of 608,000 votes was not achieved.
END OF ARTICLE / DeepL translation
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