Facts and Arguments about the Introduction of Initiative and ...

Partly thanks to its successes in Bavaria and Hamburg, the
Mehr Demokratie movement has spread throughout the
whole of Germany. The movement now has branches in 13 of
the 16 German states. Its campaigns, publicity and lobbying
played a major role in the introduction of the binding citizens’
initiative referendum in all states and municipalities in
Germany, even if the rules governing them vary enormously
in quality. In addition, Mehr Demokratie has managed to win
over a majority of the German parliament to the idea of introducing
direct democracy at the federal level in Germany,
though it does not yet have the two-thirds’ majority that is
necessary for an amendment to the constitution. For more
information see: www.mehr-demokratie.de.
Germany: Schönau
After the environmental disaster with the nuclear power station
at Chernobyl in April 1986, a citizens’ initiative called
the ‘Parents’ initiative for a nuclear-free future’ was launched
in Schönau, a Black Forest village with 2,500 inhabitants.
The aim was to promote more moderate consumption of
power without the use of atomic energy. There were some
small successes, but the campaigners soon realised that they
could achieve very little without controlling the power supply
themselves. After all, the regional power supplier, KWR,
set the electricity rates, and energy saving and decentralised
energy production would be unprofitable for it.
When the contract between the municipality and the electricity
company came up for renewal, the power struggle began.
The citizens’ initiative had developed its own plan for environmentally
friendly energy production and distribution, and
therefore wanted to take over the local electricity grid from
KWR. To do this, they set up the ‘Netzkauf Schönau’ (Schönau
Grid Purchase) umbrella organisation. However, the municipal
council still decided to renew the contract with KWR.
In order to win the right to acquire the local electricity grid,
‘Netzkauf Schönau’ launched a referendum in 1991, which
they won with 55.7% of the votes. The acquisition of the grid
and the installation of an ecological energy policy appeared
to be possible. Citizens not only from Schönau, but from the
whole of Germany, collected the four million marks needed
to buy the local grid. In 1994, the local company “Elektrizitätswerke
Schönau GmbH” (EWS – Schönau Electricity
Works) was established, which then received the concession
from the municipality.
However, a broad front of resistance to this change came
into being. It included, naturally enough, the power company
KWR, but also the Christian Democratic CDU and large
parts of the socialist SPD. It was also joined by the largest
employer in the district, who warned of power cuts and higher
electricity prices if the ‘power rebels’ were allowed to push
ahead with their plan. The opponents of the local energy
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rebels launched a second citizens’ initiative. KWR supported
the opponents of the alternative energy initiative with substantial
funds and a specially arranged ‘information office’.
But the power rebels were victorious a second time, though
by a narrower margin: in March 1996, 52.4% of the voters
agreed that the cooperation between the Schönau municipality
and KWR should be ended.
The power company then played its final trump card: it asked
for 8.7 million marks for the sale of the local infrastructure,
instead of the 4.5 million marks which the citizens’ initiative
experts had estimated. In November 1996, after two years
of denial, KWR admitted that Schönau actually only had 22
kilometres of cabling rather than the 33 claimed, and the
asking price dropped from 8.7 million to 6.5 million marks.
The power rebels from Schönau then conducted a campaign
across the whole of Germany to collect the rest of the money,
under the slogan: “Ich bin ein Störfall” (“I am a hazardous
incident”). At the same time, they continued their legal battle
against the company to get the unreasonable price lowered.
On 1 July 1997, the electricity company set up by the citizens
officially took over the local electricity grid for a price of 5.8
million marks.
Since then, EWS Schönau has proven itself to be a professional
and reliable energy supplier, even in the eyes of
former opponents. The managing director of the company
is Ursula Sladek, one of the original initiative group. The
amount of solar energy produced per head of population is
the highest in Germany and nuclear power has been entirely
banned. Among other buildings, the roofs of the town hall
and the Lutheran church in Schönau are completely covered
with solar panels. Due to the liberalisation of the power market,
EWS can now supply customers throughout Germany.
Since 1998, the Schönau power rebels have also been providing
support to initiatives in the rest of Germany that want
to switch to eco-power. They have cooperated in the creation
of a network of no less than 697 German eco-power producers.
For every kilowatt of eco-electricity produced, between a
half cent and two cents is put into a fund for new eco-power
producers. This has enabled EWS to donate 900,000 euros
over the last three years. And in July 2005, a court ruled that
even the reduced KWR sale price of 5.8 million marks was
too much: the real value of the local grid was only 3.5 million
marks (1.8 million Euros) and KWR had to refund the
difference to EWS.
The Schönau example shows that citizens possess significant
latent social capital and are prepared to make the effort.
At the same time, it also demonstrates that direct-democratic
decision-making is indispensable in order to cash in on this
moral capital. If the decisive citizens’ initiative at municipal
level had not been available to the citizens of Schönau, the
KWR power company, in collaboration with the municipal
council, could have simply continued to impose its own will.
(For more information see: www.ews-schoenau.de)