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Dec. 1, 2025

On behalf of the Neue Generation Germany (New Generation: www.neuegeneration.com) and as part of the event "Parlament der Menschen" (Parliament of the People: www.parlamentdermenschen.de), a part of our team participated in the writing of the following study in the summer of 2025: "Climate Councils in Germany: Demands and Obstacles to Implementation".

In the study, 57 climate-related councils in Germany were examined based on two questions:

1. What was demanded in the councils?

2. What happened to the claims?  

The clear result: There are many citizens' councils in Germany - but politicians do almost nothing with their results. Instead of change, they often only bring symbolic politics: citizens talk, politicians nod - and then? Radio silence. Results are lost in “master plans” and “strategies” that no one checks.

More information and the complete study in German can be found here: https://parlamentdermenschen.de/klimaraete-in-deutschland/ 

For the automated Google-Docs-translation to English of the study in full length please click here: PDF.

April 24, 2025

On March, 25th 2025, the new Bundestag, Germany's national parliament with 630 members, was constituted.

246 of them had already expressed their support for citizens' councils as a means of increasing citizen participation in the legislative process. These representatives primarily come from the SPD (Social democrats),  Bündnis90/Die Grüne (Greens), and Die Linke (Left), but a few conservatives from the CDU/CSU and even a few members of the far-right AfD party also spoke out in favor of citizens' councils.

The DDNetworkers evaluated publicly available documents and websites to compile this list.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gWXdy0L_SlaYhbLywOb5jFYu8_QMGFZo2UmR2onAvRw/edit?gid=0#gid=0 

This list is freely available and can be commented on by anyone, as well as downloaded in various formats for use in their own campaign work. Sharing and adding to the list is expressly encouraged.

Please send information, questions, or suggestions to info@deliberativedemocracy.net. 

February 24, 2025

On February 23, 2025, the new Bundestag, Germany's national parliament, was elected. Of the five parties that entered parliament, three supported citizens' assemblies: the SPD (Social Democrats), Bündnis 90/Die Grüne (Greens), and Die Linke (Left). However, these parties' parliamentary groups together do not form a majority in parliament. Furthermore, all parties emphasize that decision-making authority remains with the elected parliamentarians.

SPD

The SPD's election manifesto of January 11, 2025, states:

"We want to establish citizens' councils as an integral part of our democracy. Randomly selected citizens' councils deliberate on difficult issues and strengthen trust in democracy. They make democracy tangible by inviting people with different positions to exchange ideas, encouraging compromise, and ensuring that the balancing of interests is understood as the core of democracy. Their recommendations flow into parliamentary deliberations, while the decisions remain with the elected institutions."

Bündnis 90/Die Grüne

The Green Party's election manifesto of December 16, 2024, states:

"For a state that works for the people. We want to better position our state for the challenges of today and tomorrow, and to this end, we offer our democratic and federal partners a hand in state reform. By this, we mean, among other things, that the tasks and roles in some areas of our federal state are redistributed, consolidated, and also clarified, for example in the area of ​​social benefits. ... Discussions in a citizens' assembly could provide the starting point for these reform processes."

And:

"Citizens' asdemblies offer the opportunity to seek the advice of the people as "everyday experts" in a representative process. This, too, needs to be strengthened."

Die Linke

The Left only published a short-form manifesto for the 2025 federal election, which does not include citizens' assemblies. But the party has a long history of calling for citizens' assemblies.

• In its election manifedto for the 2021 federal election, the party wrote: "We want to introduce citizens' assemblies at the federal, regional, and municipal levels to democratize transport planning."

• As early as 2019, The Left called for the promotion of a social network oriented towards the common good through Social Innovations Funds and wrote on the party website: "Its detailed design should be developed by an international citizens' assembly with randomly selected citizens, supported by experts and broad virtual user participation, in sufficient time and in a completely transparent process."

• And as early as 2015, the party proposed the following: "The socio-ecological energy transition is a key project that we combine with the democratization and decentralization of the energy supply.  Components of this include the transfer of energy companies into socially controlled ownership, the promotion of energy cooperatives, and the fight for new municipal utilities democratically controlled by citizens' assemblies."