BAYERN - AND THE COMING LOCAL ELECTIONS


March 10:
Today I want to write about BAYERN – BAVARIA.  Why? Because they have local elections on Sunday, March 15 – and again a second round on Sunday, March 22.  It is good for all of us also to know (more) about important local affairs in Germany.
First, some information about BAYERN – Germany’s biggest and southernmost state.  Its area is 70.550 sq.km. This is about 20 % of Germany’s total area. It has 13 mio inhabitants. The state has different regions such as Bayern itself, Franken and Schwaben. And the biggest cities are the capital München ( 1,5 mio inhabitants ) and Nürnberg.  

 Bayern is calling itself FREISTAAT BAYERN  ( Free State Bayern ) – though it for a long time has been part of Germany.  They still make statistics on their foreign trade, where the rest of Germany is part of “other countries”.
The state is very industrialised, such as its car and motor industry BMW and AUDI.  It also has an important agricultural sector. And it is Germany’s beer country. It has today 624 breweries, f.ex. the well-know Löwenbräu from 1383.  The Bavarians manage to drink a good part of their beer. Each person consumes in average 140 l beer a year ( the average for the rest of Germany is 107 l ). And it happens in particular during the famous OKTOBER-FEST each year – a tradition since the early 1800.
It is also interesting to think about why beer is and has always been so important. It is actually considered – at least in Germany – as a Lebensmittel, as food. Originally it was already in the Middle Ages necessary for survival – and not only in Germany.  You could not drink the water. It was heavily polluted. So you had to drink beer – in mornings, for lunch and for dinner. And also in between. So people were constantly a bit drunk. Apart from the dangerous water, life conditions were so tough that it helped to get your chunk of beer.  An additional angle to all this is that also today a beer is often called a “bajer” in Danish. This is because beer came from Bayern.  
Bayern is a very nice area to visit. München – the capital – is the pearl. It is very lively and has an atmosphere like in the south of Europe. People often call it “Italy’s most northern city”.   The region of Franken is famous for its wine. Do not miss it !
And now some information about the coming local elections:
Bayern has 2.031 municipalities ( Gemeinde ) and 71 regions. Altogether 39.500 posts are up for election. You can vote, when you are 18 years old. Citizens from other EU countries may vote and be candidates.  The Brits no longer, of course.  The election period is 6 years.
If no candidates get over 50 % of the votes in the first round on March 15, a second round in the municipality concerned will take place a week later – and the two candidates with most votes compete with each other. 
Politics in Bayern has for many years been dominated by  CSU, the Christian-Social Union. It is a sister party to CDU in the rest of Germany. But during the recent elections the party has lost ground – to SPD as well as to the Greens.  That is why it is very interesting to see how things will go this time.
Europe is not an important theme in this election. It is generally not disputed.
When the capital München is concerned I will mention the three main candidates for the post as Lord Mayor ( Oberbürgermeister ):  Dieter Reiter ( SPD ) – the present mayor.  And two younger female candidates:  Katrin Habenschaden ( die Grüne ), and Kristina Frank ( CSU ).  


If you want to follow the election campaign and its results you can do it in three English-language German media:
1)      DEUTSCHE WELLE:   https://www.dw.com/en/

2)      DIE ZEIT ON-LINE:    www.zeit.de

3)      THE LOCAL:                www.thelocal.de


You can, of course, also follow it in German in the biggest newspaper in Bayern:
SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG  -  https://www.sueddeutsche.de

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