For years, Bettina Endriss-Herz (52), CSU councilor in Haar and chairman of the disability advisory council, has been fighting for digital participation in democracy.
Now she is almost there.
Haar - After many letters, e-mails and phone calls, Bettina Endriss-Herz (52), CSU councilor in Haar and chairwoman of the disability advisory council, seems to have finally won her fight for digital participation in democracy.
For a long time it was a futile fight against windmills - until the corona pandemic built up pressure to act.
The BR business journalist has been on the Haar municipal council for seven years, and since then she has tried to make digital participation in public life, including political ones, socially acceptable.
Then, for example, local councils could take part in local council meetings via video conference and exercise their voting rights.
That was not possible before.
Attendance was compulsory for those willing to vote in public meetings.
“Silly and old-fashioned”, thinks Bettina Endriss-Herz.
“We are in the digital age!” She has only been able to take part in a few meetings in the past few months.
The risk of infection was simply too high for her.
Bettina Endriss-Herz has multiple sclerosis, which is why she has been dependent on a wheelchair for 20 years.
"Don't give up!"
The pandemic has now given the impetus that some things will also change in the meeting rooms.
The Bavarian state government has the law rewritten.
For people with disabilities or local councilors with young children, this offers a whole new level of political engagement.
Being able to live democracy, participate and have a say in decisions from the sofa at home - Bettina-Endriss fought for a long time.
District Office, Ministry of the Interior, MPs and the Bavarian Commissioner for the Disabled, all of them have already received mail from her.
“Don't give up!” Is their motto.
In this, she wants to be a role model for all people with disabilities and encourage them to get involved.
As things stand at present, the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior is preparing a bill stating that the chairman must be physically present in the meeting room, so that purely virtual meetings are excluded, but individual municipal councils can join meetings and vote.
According to the Interior Ministry, however, the municipalities themselves should have the last word, summarized the CSU parliamentary group in a press release.
For this purpose, a working group has been set up in the Haar municipal council, which will work out the implementation of the law as soon as it is passed (we reported).
Before that, there had been applications from Peter Siemsen (FDP) and the SPD parliamentary group.
You can find more news from Haar and the district of Munich here.
