According to the left-wing faction in the Hessian state parliament, the way is clear for a Hessian referendum for a traffic turnaround.

After its big party at the end of August, the “Verkehrswende Hessen” initiative handed over a total of more than 70,000 signatures for such a change in mobility to Hessen’s Minister of Transport Tarek Al-Wazir (Die Grünen).

Now the check by the state returning officer has shown that the required number of valid signatures has been collected.

Torsten Felstehausen, parliamentary spokesman for the left faction, announced this on Sunday.

He is referring to information "from circles of the initiators of the referendum".

"We congratulate the initiators of the collection of signatures on this success," said Felstehausen and added: "With the confirmation of the state returning officer that there are enough valid signatures, the first hurdle has been cleared." He now expects the state parliament to quickly carry out the corresponding parliamentary procedure begin to translate the goals of the referendum into practical politics.

But that won't happen that quickly, because the state government now has one month to check whether the draft law corresponds to the constitution.

If this is the case, then, in a second step, around 215,000 people (one twentieth of those entitled to vote in Hesse) would have to sign the initiative's application in Hesse's town halls and citizens' offices.

If this is the case and the state parliament would still reject the draft, there would be a referendum.

That would be a novelty, because Hesse has never had one before.