Hessian SPD punished: Also because of transport policy?
The Hessian SPD caused a stir shortly before the state elections on Sunday. When it came to transport policy, you not only wanted a drastic reduction in individual transport, you also did not shy away from interfering with citizens' private rights. Have you now been punished for this?
The SPD achieved its historically worst election result in Hesse on Sunday, 08.10.2023. Only just over 15% of voters could be convinced by the Social Democrats. While the issues of economic development and climate and energy influenced the voters' decision with about 20% each, the issue of transport also played a role with as much as 3%.
Only a few days before the election, the SPD had campaigned with a radical turnaround in transport policy. In a motion in the state parliament, they stated that "motorised individual transport must be reduced by at least 10% every year. In order to achieve this goal, interventions in personal rights should not be stopped. What exactly these interventions would look like was not discussed.
The issue caused a stir. While some citizens would certainly agree to a reduction of private transport, an encroachment on private rights, whatever that might look like, is certainly desired by very few voters. It would be possible, for example, to ban certain vehicles, generally or at certain times, or to close roads and areas. The SPD's election programme remained vague. Nevertheless, it was clear that motorists' freedom would be drastically restricted.
Their decision in the state election was certainly also determined by politics at the federal level as well as the other issues at the state level mentioned above. In Bavaria, things did not necessarily go better for the SPD in the election. Nevertheless, it seems as if politics is not getting off the ground with the transport turnaround in Germany. Sometimes they push ahead, as now in Hesse, and are then bitterly disappointed and punished by the citizens, sometimes they remain inactive and are criticised because other countries in the EU are already much further ahead. A meaningful, holistic concept is missing. So there will be no green mobility.