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Bavaria must remain part of Germany, says top court

Emma Anderson
Emma Anderson - [email protected]
Bavaria must remain part of Germany, says top court
Farmers in Bavaria wearing traditional clothing. Photo: DPA.

No 'Bayxit' for you: A man's attempt to hold a Brexit-style referendum on whether Bavaria should remain in Germany has been rejected by the country's Constitutional Court.

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A man in Bavaria (Bayern in German) filed a case with the Constitutional Court, seeking to hold a ‘Bayxit’ vote to decide whether the southern, alpine state should continue to be part of Germany.

The notion of a Germany without Bavaria may leave some foreigners scratching their heads because many of their cliched ideas about Germany - Lederhosen, Oktoberfest - are in fact uniquely Bavarian.

But the court said in a decision released on Monday that the Grundgesetz - Germany’s constitutional law - does not allow for individual states to break away.

“In the Federal Republic of Germany, which is a nation-state based on the constituent power of the German people, states are not ‘masters of the constitution’,” the court wrote in the decision.

“Therefore there is no room under the constitution for individual states to attempt to secede. This violates the constitutional order.”

The Bavarian Party, which advocates for an independent Bavaria within the EU, mourned the court’s decision in statements posted on social media.

“The fight for Bavarian independence will not be decided by a court, but rather by the will of the Bavarians,” the party wrote on Facebook and Twitter in response to the ruling.

In a separate post, they also promised a continued fight for their state’s freedom.

“The Bavarian Party is happy to see in celebration of the New Year that efforts for self determination are growing across Europe… The Bavarian Party will be working towards this with all of its strength in the New Year.”

Die Bayernpartei zeigt sich anläßlich des Jahreswechsels erfreut darüber, dass die Selbstbestimmungsbestrebungen in ganz...

Posted by Bayernpartei on Sunday, January 1, 2017
 

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