To the Berlin SENATE: WE TAKE YOU AT YOUR WORDS!
IMMEDIATELY start a FEDERAL COUNCIL INITIATIVE to introduce VOTING RIGHTS FOR ALL!
The right to vote for all is a minimum requirement for a democratic society. Exclusion from it cannot be justified by a lack of German citizenship.
Almost 10 million people in Germany are excluded from the voting rights both on the federal and and at the state level. This is undemocratic.
In Berlin, more than 700,000 Berliners over the age of 18 without a German passport were excluded from the elections to the Bundestag and the Abgehordetenhaus (House of Representatives) and from the referendum to expropriate Deutsche Wohnen und Co. in September 2021. This is more than 22% of all Berliners over 18 years old.
It is time that this democratic defitic is ended!
Now the Berlin coalition agreement of December 2021 states:
Punkt 10. Partizipation und Migration, S. 71
Die Koalition setzt sich im Bund dafür ein, die bundesrechtlichen Voraussetzungen zu schaffen, um ein aktives Wahlrecht auf Landes- und Bezirksebene auch für Menschen ohne deutsche Staatsangehörigkeit, die seit mindestens fünf Jahren in der Stadt leben, zu ermöglichen. Auch landesrechtliche Möglichkeiten werden geprüft.
(The coalition is working at the federal level to create the conditions under federal law to enable an active right to vote at the state and district level – also for people without German citizenship who have lived in the city for at least five years. Possibilities under state law are also being examined.)
Unfortunately, we do not have too much hope: the Berlin, the R2G government already provided for the same Bundesrat initiative in the 2016 coalition agreement. Nothing has happened so far. Now the new government must prove whether it is serious about its own promises!
Our demands on the Berlin Senate are:
- The immediate initiation of steps to implement point 10 of the coalition agreement, for this:
- The launch of a Bundesrat initiative to introduce voting rights at the federal level.
- The establishment of a working group at the Berlin state level to examine and implement “possibilities under state law,” as promised in the coalition agreement.
- Ensuring the active participation of representatives of those affected in the bodies to be formed, both at state and federal level
We understand the struggle for the right to vote for all to be part of our struggles against all kinds of racism, nationalism, capitalism, patriarchy, displacement, poverty. Without voting rights, people lack the possibility to stand up for their rights to democratical participation.
Referendums are an important means of democratical participation in Berlin. But here, people who do not have a German passport are excluded from democratical participation – even though they are directly affected by these decisions (from keeping the Tempelhofer Feld open to the expropriation of Deutsche Wohnen and Co.) Further referendums are planned in Berlin and it is important that the electoral law is changed quickly so that for future referendums really all people who live in Berlin can have a voice!
We appeal to the red-red-green state government: Whether referendum, House of Representatives or Bundestag – electoral law must apply to all! The new government must now do everything in its power to ensure this – anything else is undemocratic!
We expect that the Berlin government answers by 31 March, at the end of the first 100 days of government.
ABA (Aktionsbündnis Antira)
DWE ( Deutsche Wohnen & Co enteignen)
Nicht ohne uns 14 %
You can see the original German version of this Open Letter at the Deutsche Wohnen & Co website. Sign the petition at Change.Org
Further signatories:
1- Allmende e.V. – Haus alternativer Migrationspolitik und Kultur
2- Anticapitalistas Deutschland
3- Antifascist Music Alliance
4- Berliner Bündnis gegen Rechts
5- Berlin Ireland Pro Choice Solidarity
6- Borderline-europe
7- CUP (Candidatura d’Unitat Popular, Katalonien) Berlin
8- DIDF
9- Die LINKE Berlin Landesarbeitsgemeinschaft Internationals
10- European Alternatives
11- GLADT
12- International Institute of Political Murder – IIPM e.V.
13- Interventionistische Linke Berlin
14-International Women’s Space
15- Korea Verband
16- Kub
17- Medibüro Berlin
18- MigraNetz Thüringen e.V.
19- Izquierda Unida Berlín
20- RomaTrial e.V.
21- Sea-Watch
22- Seebrücke berlin
23- Solidarity City Berlin
24- Staub zu Glitzer
25- Sudanesische Kommunistische Partei Deutschland
26- Ver.di Landesbezirksleiterin Berlin
27-Brandenburg und Bezirksgeschäftsführerin Berlin
28- Theater X
29- Trans* Sex Workers
30- ver.di Landesmigrationsausschuss Berlin-Brandenburg
31- Wrangelkiez United
32- Transformation Haus & Feld
33- Frauenkreise
34- Space2groW
35- Die Urbane. Eine HipHop Partei
36- Berliner Obdachlosenhilfe e.V.
37- Klimaneustart Berlin
38- KOP Kampagne für Opfer rassistischer Polizeigewalt
39- Demokratie in der Mitte
40- BIWOC* Rising – Intersectional Coworking & Social Club
41- Erklär mir mal
42- neue deutsche Organisationen – das postmigrantische netzwerk e.V.
43- Magazin of Color
44- Tadel verpflichtet! e.V.
45- Leave No one Behind
46- Volksentscheid Berlin autofrei
