Posting posters in the election campaign: rebuff for the ÖDP application

Created: 08/17/2022, 12:51 p.m

By: Katrin Hager

No place for the ÖDP: In the 2021 federal elections, Peter Limmer did not have the opportunity to put up posters in some places.

The wall on Rosenheimer Strasse, for example, was reserved for the seven major parties.

© archive TP

The rules for posting posters during the election campaign remain the same in Holzkirchen: the municipal council rejected the ÖDP's request for change.

Holzkirchen

– Are small parties disadvantaged by the billposting rules of the market town in Holzkirchen in election advertising?

Peter Limmer, Vice-Chairman of the ÖDP from Holzkirchen, sees it that way.

That's why he's struggling for a change.

His proposal found a majority in the citizens' assembly, which referred the issue to the municipal council.

However, the application has now failed.

On the one hand, Limmer's application aimed at the fact that the order of the posters on the notice boards of the community should be based on the most recent corresponding election.

And secondly, that each party or group receives a maximum of one poster per location.

The regulation should apply to all parties and groups in the respective parliament, the remaining free seats are used by all others as long as there is space.

From Limmer's point of view, fairer and easier than before, he saw his and other small parties disadvantaged in the 2021 federal election campaign.

The municipal supervision at the district office does not see any striking fairness advantage in the proposal, as emerged from the statements by Johann Bachhuber from the municipal regulatory office in the municipal council.

Instead of sorting by election result, it is more practical to take the official ordinal number – i.e. the ranking on the official ballot paper – as a benchmark.

Reducing the number of posters to one copy per billboard would also be permissible in principle, the municipal supervisory authority said, but a gradation would then be difficult.

There is no legal right for parties or groups to be represented on every single notice board, provided that appropriate self-representation is guaranteed in the rest of the area.

Mayor sees “legal conformity certified”

"The reference we use to the ordinal number will in practice lead to the result intended in the application," summarized Bachhuber and, from the point of view of the administration, recommended that the application be rejected.

"The district office has certified our legal compliance," said the head of the town hall, Christoph Schmid (CSU).

The vast majority of the municipal council did not see the need to reset the posting rules for elections either.

The current handling has developed over time, said CSU parliamentary group spokesman Sebastian Franz. Looking purely at the result of the previous election, he thought, was a refuted approach.

"We didn't do well with it in the past, it caused more trouble." The goal of creating more equality made sense to Felix Remuta (Greens).

"But the application is too immature, as we find out in the discussion."

Only Wolfgang Huber (SPD) was able to warm to the application.

"The citizens' assembly did not refer the application here with the intention that the previous result be confirmed," he said.

"I have seldom seen such a flimsy statement as that of the district office and administration," criticized Huber: "It is always said that this is possible, but not practicable." Miesbach.

Schmid resolutely defended the Holzkirchner line.

"We won't be able to do that with our billboards, and our regulation is legally compliant." Robert Wiechmann (Greens) was also convinced of the Holzkirchner model: "I don't know of any regulation where things are as fair as in Holzkirchen." The municipal council refused the ÖDP application with 24:1.

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It was important to Birgit Eibl (FWG) to explain that she was against Limmer's allegation: "I strictly reject the assumption that agreements have been made in favor of our group."

Limmer: "You could, if you wanted to"

Applicant Peter Limmer is not surprised, but disappointed by the debate and decision in the Holzkirchner municipal council.

"The parties that set up these controversial billposting rules are not aware of any guilt and are patting each other on the back," he says resignedly.

He had to witness a "mixture of half-truths and ignorance" and could not comment on it because he was not given the floor.

For the deputy district chairman of the ÖDP, the statement from the municipal supervisory authority, which sounds vague to him, is: "You could if you wanted to."

The ÖDP will consider how to react to the decision.