No repeat of the referendum on basic income in Hamburg

The referendum on an unconditional basic income, which was clearly lost last year, will not be repeated. The Hamburg Constitutional Court rejected the initiators' corresponding applications. “The applications are rejected,” said court president Birgit Voßkuhler on Friday when the verdict was announced.

There are no objections to the dispatch date of the information booklet on the referendum and statements made by government members in their capacity as party politicians. On the other hand, the initiators' complaint that the government factions of the SPD and the Greens had partially disregarded their principle of objectivity was partially justified. However, the court explained that the violations were not so serious that the vote had to be repeated.

In the first state model experiment, the initiators wanted to provide 2,000 representatively selected Hamburg residents with a basic income for three years. However, the initiators clearly lost the referendum on October 12th last year. 62.7 percent of citizens voted against the initiative, only 37.3 percent voted for it.