What citizens in Hesse are allowed to do and what not is regulated by the constitution and the Hessian municipal code.

So they can participate in elections.

They can work in associations, for example for nature conservation and the community, demonstrate or work on advisory boards if they have been elected to such a body.

But that's not enough for the Giessen city politicians.

That's why they passed a statute for citizen participation - only courts have conceded this local legal set of rules.

Now the Central Hessians are trying again.

Thorsten Winter

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for central Hesse and the Wetterau.

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The new guidelines take up the legal criticism, as Mayor Frank-Tilo Becher (SPD) explained to journalists on Tuesday.

The future rules should no longer patronize the city councillors.

Unlike before, there is no longer any mention of the magistrate.

Nothing changes in the original goal.

Participation regardless of nationality

According to this, the revised version of the statute is intended to “continue active political participation in a legally compliant and serious manner”.

And that for the purpose of further strengthening the trust between the residents, administration and politics in this university town on the Lahn.

In addition, the new guidelines should expand the discussion culture in a result-oriented manner.

The mayor emphasizes that this is of particular importance today.

Becher does not speak of residents instead of citizens.

The speech is now in official German from Resident Participation Statute, previously the work was called Citizen Participation Statute.

Gießener ruled out this wording without a German passport.

Because citizens are German citizens in the legal sense.

After the failure of the original statutes in court, the magistrate and at least the majority factions SPD, Greens and Giessener Linke want to "heal" this point right away.

Because they want more political participation regardless of nationality.

In view of the legal criticism, however, those provisions in which the old statutes restricted the elected city politicians' freedom of decision too much should be healed.

"Insofar as the magistrate has to decide or act according to this statute," read about one half-sentence that was objected to.

The relevant paragraph no longer appears in the new version.

The same applies to the order to the magistrate to evaluate the application of the statute and to examine the need for changes two years after it came into force.

Thirdly, there is no longer any talk of the citizens' question hour, which should not be confused with the institution of the same name during meetings of the city councillors.

The old statute granted the citizens the right to ask questions and express wishes and suggestions in these meetings.

The new version leaves it up to city councilors to grant residents this right.

The city also had to accommodate the court decisions with regard to the intention to introduce a citizens' application that was not provided for in the municipal code - and to prescribe that the magistrate deal with such applications if they were supported by one percent of the city's residents.

Now there should be a “resident petition”.

Aligned with the relevant paragraphs 16 and 17 of the Municipal Code and the Rules of Procedure of the City Council.

Becher swears by the “high value of the right of petition”.

As a member of the state parliament, he has more than once had corresponding input from people on his desk who otherwise did not feel heard, as he said.

Local authority concerns at the RP

According to Becher, the administration worked closely with the municipal supervisory authority at the regional council (RP) on the new statutes in order to be able to quickly address and eliminate any concerns.

The RP had criticized the old regulations, the administrative court in the city and the Hessian administrative court agreed with his point of view.

Now Becher hopes for a court-proof local law set of rules.

And last but not least, to something that could spread charisma in Hesse and find imitators.

The previous efforts to expand the limits of political citizen participation were carefully observed in various town halls, as was reflected in Giessen.

However, the Lord Mayor left no doubt about his opinion that the municipal code, known as the HGO for short, gave the people between the Kassel and Odenwald areas too few opportunities to exert political influence.

If one percent of the inhabitants of a municipality thought that the political bodies had to discuss a topic, then this should also happen, says Becher.

For this, however, the HGO would have to be changed, as he knows.