Bavaria takes first step to scrap student fees
Student fees could become a thing of the past in Bavaria, after a top court gave the go-ahead for the subject to be put to a referendum.
State Premier Horst Seehofer has been pushing for the fees to be scrapped since last year, and will be making the topic an important one in his campaign for next September’s state election.
Support for scrapping the fees – between €100 and €400 a semester – has been growing among the ranks of Seehofer’s Christian Social Union (CSU), Der Spiegel magazine said on Wednesday.
The Bavarian Constitutional Court ruled on Monday that the proposition to get rid of the fees could be subjected to a referendum as requested by a voter’s initiative with more than 25,000 signatures.
The magazine suggested the fees could be scrapped ahead of any popular vote – if the CSU and coalition partner in Bavaria’s state government, the Free Democratic Party (FDP), work together to reclaim the initiative.
“I am convinced, that the majority of people would vote against student fees,” Bavarian FDP chairman Andreas Fischer told the Mittelbayerischen Zeitung without saying whether he wanted to see them go or not.
This is not the first time that Seehofer has tried to abolish fees. His 2011 attempt was thwarted by opposition from his own party.
The Local/jcw
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State Premier Horst Seehofer has been pushing for the fees to be scrapped since last year, and will be making the topic an important one in his campaign for next September’s state election.
Support for scrapping the fees – between €100 and €400 a semester – has been growing among the ranks of Seehofer’s Christian Social Union (CSU), Der Spiegel magazine said on Wednesday.
The Bavarian Constitutional Court ruled on Monday that the proposition to get rid of the fees could be subjected to a referendum as requested by a voter’s initiative with more than 25,000 signatures.
The magazine suggested the fees could be scrapped ahead of any popular vote – if the CSU and coalition partner in Bavaria’s state government, the Free Democratic Party (FDP), work together to reclaim the initiative.
“I am convinced, that the majority of people would vote against student fees,” Bavarian FDP chairman Andreas Fischer told the Mittelbayerischen Zeitung without saying whether he wanted to see them go or not.
This is not the first time that Seehofer has tried to abolish fees. His 2011 attempt was thwarted by opposition from his own party.
The Local/jcw
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