Hospital referendum currently: landslide victory of the action alliance

Created: 06/12/2022, 04:48

By: Sebastian Tauchnitz

The Weilheim hospital offers hardly any space for expansion © Ralf Ruder/Archiv

The subject of the first referendum at district level in Weilheim-Schongau is the future of the municipal hospital system.

In our news ticker we keep you up to date on all current developments.

Update December 4, 9:45 p.m. – The result is in, first reactions

District

- crystal clear thing: The initiators of the referendum on the future of the hospital achieved a clear victory.

With one exception - the market town of Peißenberg - the citizens of the district voted "yes" across the board and thus against the central hospital plans.

In the struggle for the future of municipal hospital care in the Weilheim-Schongau district, the Action Alliance Pro Hospital Schongau has achieved a clear victory.

Around two thirds of the voters - 67.2 percent - voted in the referendum on the question: "Are you in favor of no central hospital being built, but that the two hospitals in Schongau and Weilheim be operated in the long term with a guarantee of basic and standard care at least the Level 1 and emergency care 7 days a week and 24 hours a day, and that the maternity ward will continue to operate at the Schongau location?” with “Yes”.

Only 32.8 percent voted “no”.

A total of 52,346 valid votes were cast.

The required quorum was exceeded by more than three times.

This means that the district council is now not allowed to take any further steps in planning the construction of a central hospital in the district for a period of one year.

Action alliance announces: "We will continue to support the citizens' will"

"We are very happy that it turned out like this," said Daniela Puzzovio from the action alliance yesterday evening after it was clear that a large majority of the district citizens had voted "yes".

"This is an unequivocal 'yes' to democracy and transparency," said Puzzovio.

She thanked the supporters of the citizens' initiative for their great commitment and announced: "We will continue to support the citizens' will."

She warned the district council and the hospital GmbH against simply waiting a year: "If they don't do anything now, people will go on the barricades." And should you just want to resume planning the central hospital in the coming year as if nothing happened, "then we are ready to initiate a referendum again".

District Administrator Andrea Jochner-Weiss: "I'm deeply disappointed"

District Administrator Andrea Jochner-Weiss said about the result that she was "deeply disappointed".

"The main thing is that the employees have placed great hopes in the planning of the central hospital.

I'm just afraid that they'll leave now because they don't see any prospects."

"Chapeaux to the action alliance for formulating the question in such a way that no one understood what was actually meant," continued Jochner-Weiss.

Now you have to analyze exactly what is necessary to implement the question.

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Managing Director Lippmann: "We wanted to courageously shape our future ourselves"

Thomas Lippmann, Managing Director of the Hospital Weilheim-Schongau GmbH, said last night: "We accept the clear result of the referendum, but we will continue to drive forward the planning for the redesign of the hospital landscape in the district together with the employees." On Monday afternoon, the supervisory board of the Hospital GmbH will be informed and discuss the next steps, then it is planned to inform the employees in Weilheim and Schongau together with the medical management.

A press conference is then planned for the late afternoon, in which the managing director of the Bavarian Hospital Society, Roland Engehausen, will also take part.

"Our project is being closely monitored nationwide," says Lippmann: "Because we didn't want to wait until certain steps were unavoidable, but wanted to boldly shape our future ourselves."

Citizens support the citizens' initiative across the board - only one municipality decides differently

One thing quickly became clear as the results gradually trickled in: If the representatives of the Weilheim-Schongau Hospital GmbH and the district council had tried to give the impression that the protest was more or less limited to the Schongau area, it was quickly realized that this is not true.

From Bernried to Ingenried - with the exception of Peißenberg, the action alliance got more votes than the district council and the hospital GmbH in every municipality in the district, whether in the east or the west.

For the people of Peißenberg, the prospect that it is generally considered very likely that the market town would become the location of the new central hospital should have been decisive.

When evaluating the result, there should also be another discussion in the coming days and weeks about whether the district council's decision not to oppose the referendum with a council request was the right one.

The majority of the district council had spoken out against asking a counter-question and then printing a decision question on the ballot paper.

December 4th, 8:09 p.m

.: Seeshaupt also calls it a day.

Here, too, a clear victory for the action alliance: 1926 votes were valid, 75 percent of those entitled to vote voted "yes".

December 4, 7:53 p.m.:

Only Seeshaupt, Penzberg and Weilheim are missing (and thus the two largest communities in the district).

However, it looks like the action alliance is unassailable in front.

As of now, 66.6 percent of citizens, a total of 25,594, voted "Yes".

“No” was ticked by 12,831 so far, which is just 33.4 percent.

December 4th, 7.41 p.m .:

The much-used argument that the resistance to the central hospital plans is a spatially limited protest from the Schongau area no longer works.

Even in Bernried - it really doesn't get much further away from Schongau - 67.5 percent of the 722 votes cast were "yes".

Peiting is also counted and the result is also clear: 4887 valid votes, 70 percent vote for "yes".

December 4, 7:37 p.m.: Closing time

in the VG Bernbeuren, which includes Bernbeuren and Burggen: 2046 valid votes, 89.4 percent voted “Yes”.

December 4, 7:33 p.m .:

Schongau is counted.

As expected, 85.4 percent of those entitled to vote voted "Yes".

Surprisingly, only 4713 citizens cast their votes.

The action alliance also achieved a clear success in Pähl.

Of the 877 valid votes, 62.7 percent were “yes”.

December 4, 7:27 p.m.:

Not even half of the voting districts have been counted, but the quorum has already been exceeded.

Now the only thing that matters to the initiators of the Pro-Hospital Schongau action alliance is that more “yes” than “no” votes are counted.

And "Ja" is now far ahead with 66.4 percent of the votes.

The market town of Peißenberg has so far been the big exception: Here, too, all voting districts have been counted, 5388 votes were cast, 63 percent of which were “No”.

This could be due to the fact that the Peißenbergers have high hopes of being awarded the site for the construction of the central hospital.

December 4th, 7:24 p.m

.: It was also clear in Wessobrunn – 851 votes were cast, 59 percent were “Yes”.

December 4, 7:07 p.m.:

Closing time for the election workers in the municipalities of the Steingaden administrative community, which includes Steingaden, Prem and Wildsteig.

2157 votes were cast, 79 percent voted for "yes".

The VG Huglfing, which includes Huglfing, Oberhausen, Eberfing and Eglfing, is also complete: 2914 votes were cast, and 55.4 percent of those entitled to vote voted "Yes".

December 4, 7 p.m.:

Even if it is still too early for precise forecasts, one thing is already becoming apparent: the quorum should not pose a problem.

14 of 74 constituencies have just been counted, but 5,500 votes have already been cast.

As a reminder, for the referendum to be a success, the majority of citizens must have voted "yes" and there must be more than 10,852 total "yes" votes.

Raisting is finished: Almost 900 votes were cast, 63.8 percent of the citizens voted "yes" and thus for the referendum.

The result in the Habach administrative community, which includes Habach, Sindelsdorf, Obersöchering and Antdorf, was also extremely clear: 1909 votes were cast, 77.6 percent of which were “yes”.

December 4th, 6:50 p.m

.: The administrative community Rottenbuch, to which Rottenbuch and Böbing belong, is through: 57.3 percent of 1465 votes are “Yes”.

December 4, 6:40 p.m.:

In the meantime, the first results from the western part of the district are also coming in.

It's clear in Prem: 86.2 percent of the participants voted "yes" in the referendum.

429 votes were cast.

The result in Wildsteig is similarly clear: 70.2 percent yes votes out of 570 votes cast in total.

December 4th, 6:20 p.m

.: The first result from Weilheim is just coming in.

In the first of a total of six electoral districts, the action alliance is ahead with 59 percent “yes” votes.

However, only 210 votes were cast in total.

December 4, 6:08 p.m

.: The Raistingers were fastest this time.

At 6:08 p.m. the result of the first of the two polling stations was reported: a clear majority of 61 percent voted “yes”.

However, only 54 votes were cast: 33 voted "yes", 21 voted "no".

The result from Oberhausen is much more meaningful.

881 votes were cast, with a wafer-thin majority of 50.6 percent (446 votes) the referendum was rejected here.

December 4, 6 p.m

.: That was it with the first referendum at district level.

The polling stations have just closed and counting has begun.

It will be interesting to see how high the rate of postal voters is.

After all, the postal voting documents did not have to be requested this time - the district office had enclosed them with each of the around 110,000 election notifications.

December 4, 5:20 p.m.:

When the polling stations close at 6 p.m., the count begins immediately.

Organizers expect the final score to be available sometime between 7pm and 8pm if no major mishaps occur.

If you want to find out about the current status of the count or want to see how the people in your home community voted, you can check the website of the district office: https://www.weilheim-schongau.de/wahlen/pro_krankenhaus_sog_2022/index. html

December 4, 5 p.m.:

Since 8 a.m., around 110,000 voters in the Weilheim-Schongau district have had the choice.

If they have not already voted by post, they can decide in the polling stations whether they want to answer the question formulated by the Action Alliance Pro Hospital Schongau with "yes" or "no".

The question reads: "Are you in favor of not building a central hospital, but rather that the two hospitals in Schongau and Weilheim be operated in the long term with a guarantee of basic and standard care at least level 1 and emergency care 7 days a week and 24 hours per day, and that the maternity ward will continue to operate at the Schongau location?" The initiators of the citizens' initiative asked their supporters to vote "yes", hospital GmbH and large parts of the district council left no stone unturned as part of an extensive campaign, the citizens to do so bring to vote "no".

What happens if the majority of citizens vote "yes"?

If the majority of citizens vote "yes" and there are at least 11,000 people, i.e. at least ten percent of those entitled to vote, then plans for the possible construction of a new central hospital will be put on hold for at least a year.

However, this does not mean that the plans are permanently shelved.

District Administrator Andrea Jochner-Weiß has already announced that if the worst comes to the worst, she wants to get back into the planning process after a year.

What happens if the majority of citizens vote "no"?

Then the test procedure, which the district council had put on hold after it was clear that the necessary signatures for the referendum had been collected, will continue immediately.

The investigation of possible locations for the new building - Schongau, Peißenberg and Weilheim remained - was as good as over.

Once the district council has decided on a possible location, the preliminary planning would start.

The spatial program is to be examined here.

At the end of the preliminary planning you would have an initial cost estimate.

So far there have only been vague assumptions based on what comparable hospital buildings cost (around half a billion euros).

With the cost estimate, you could then clarify with the Free State of Bavaria how much the subsidy would pay.

District Administrator Andrea Jochner-Weiß has already made it clear that anything below 75 percent funding would mean the end of the project.

Only when the costs and funding are clear and the location has been determined does the district council make the final decision on whether to build or not.

The prerequisite for this, however, is that the action alliance does not achieve the required majority.

Otherwise there is a risk of long delays or even the complete end of the project.