Part 10
GERMANY is a federal government of 16 states, with Bavaria as a wealthy Southern state, with 1/5th land mass, second most populous, and a Catholic majority. Long gestating Bavarian nationalism has pushed for a ‘Free State of Bavaria’. An assertive Bavarian man filed a court case attempting to pressure a referendum on terminating the ties with the central government known in 2017 as “Bayxit” (Bayern is the name of Bavaria). A German Court released a decision stating the country’s fundamental law does not allow Bavaria to break-away. Ergo, no referendum is permitted because States are not allowed to leave Germany. “In the Federal Republic of Germany…states are not master of the Constitution”, the court wrote in a decision. “Therefore, there is no room under the constitution for individual states to attempt to secede. This violates the constitutional order”. Said decision was however met with defiance, when leading supporters opined, such issue should be “Decided not by the court, but the Bavarian People”.
There are other autonomist movements campaigning for the establishment of autonomous areas based on non-belligerent approaches, but on ethnic, religious, cultural and even political regional groupings. In Germany there are: 1) East Frisia for the Frisian people located Northwest of the Federal State of Lower Saxony 2) Franconia, associated with East Franconian dialect group; largest but un-official capital is Nuremberg 3) Lusatia for the Sorbs, a West Slavic people located in the German States Saxony, Bradenburg, Lower Silesian and Lubusz 4) Rhineland, a loosely defined area of West Germany covering North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate 5) Schleswig-Holstein for the Danish people 6) Baden-Wurttemberg for the Swabian people in South-Western Germany 7) Pomeranians for the autonomous area of Western Pomerania, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
