According to the initiators, the referendum to preserve biodiversity in Bavaria has taken a decisive hurdle prematurely. By Tuesday noon, more than one million people had enrolled in petition lists, it was said in circles of the initiators of the referendum "Save the bees", including the Federal Nature Conservation and the National Association for Bird Protection.
To succeed, signatures were required from more than ten percent of all eligible voters - just under a million. The official numbers will be submitted by the Land Returning Officer on Thursday. They could be even higher, because many municipalities were missing in the overview of the initiators.
The goal is to make ten percent of the grassland in Bavaria flowering meadows. Rivers and streams should be better protected from fertilizers and pesticides in the future. In addition, all agricultural land managed by the state should manage without pesticides and organic farming should be massively expanded by legislative decree. These are just some of the demands for a novella of the nature conservation law.
Söder calls to round table
The referendum could become the most successful for over fifty years, explained the initiators. They called for further signatures until the end of the registration period on Wednesday in order to put as much pressure on the government of Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU).
Söder has already invited to a round table for more biodiversity. On Tuesday of next week, "cross-party" looking for solutions and openly discussed, Söder announced via Twitter. "Our goal is a social consensus." Nature should not be protected against the peasants, but with them.