Hamburg's gender opponent claims court ruling against Senate!

Hamburg's gender opponent claims court ruling against Senate!

On Friday, June 6, 2025, the negotiation before the Hamburg Constitutional Court on the lawsuit of the initiative "Conclusion with gender language in administration and education" began. This initiative accuses the Hamburg Senate because it accuses him of not properly carrying out the referendum. A year ago, the group failed in its first collection of signatures, in which it collected 55,096 support signatures, although 65,835 votes are required to carry out a referendum. The Constitutional Court will expect its decision at the beginning of July, as Welt

The initiative criticizes that the Senate makes it difficult for citizens to give their votes. According to the initiators, the Senate violates Article 50 of the Hamburg Constitution, since the information about the referendum is only published in the official scoreboard and can only be collected by personal signatures. In order to increase the participation of citizens, the initiative calls for an additional online vote. The Senate, on the other hand, emphasizes that it has followed all legal requirements.

Current collection of signatures and referendum

parallel to the judicial discussion, the initiative launched the next round of the referendum. The classic collection of signatures begins from August 8, 2025. Citizens can also object to the use of gender stars in official documents, such as NDR . The initiators, including the spokesman Jens Jeep, argue that the intelligibility is affected by the use of gender forms. Initiative needs 66,000 signatures for a referendum next year.

The lack of extension and the implementation of the signature collection during the summer holidays made the collection more difficult. A year ago, the red-green citizenship rejected a corresponding application, which is part of the criticism of the politics of the citizens. In the event of a successful referendum, the parliament must again deal with the legislative proposal. A repetition of the rejection could lead to a referendum.

The context of citizen participation

The actors acting are in the greater context of citizen participation, which is becoming increasingly important in Germany. Folk petals are considered the second stage of direct democracy that enable citizens to help shape decisions in politics. In the past, Hamburg has experienced both successes and challenges in the area of ​​citizen participation. In other federal states, such as Hesse and Bavaria, gender language has already been banned in authorities, which gives additional emphasis on the concerns of the Hamburg initiative. Further information on citizen participation can be found in the Federal Center for Political Education .

The coming weeks will be crucial, not only for the initiative itself, but also for the question of how strongly citizen participation in Hamburg will be pronounced in the future. In times of increasing social tensions and different opinions on topics such as Gender, the Hamburg initiative wants to set a clear accent with its collection of signatures.