Constitutional Court rules that no local referendum is required for the construction of battery factories

Back in late January, LMP initiated a national referendum on the construction of battery factories with the following question:

"Do you agree that a battery manufacturing plant can only be established in a municipality if it is supported by an explicit decision of the local community through a local referendum?"

The National Election Committee (NEC), however, refused to certify the referendum question. Following the decision, an application for review was lodged with the Curia, which upheld the NVB's decision. Subsequently, LMP filed a constitutional complaint on the grounds that the decision violated the Constitution on several points and that the Curia had failed to carry out a substantive examination of the application for review.

However, the Constitutional Court rejected LMP's constitutional complaint without substantive examination.

In the explanatory memorandum, they wrote:

"The contested decision of the Curia is not contrary to the Constitution. The petition did not raise any fundamental constitutional issue or any doubt of an infringement of fundamental law that would have had a material effect on the merits of the judicial decision, which would have justified the admission and substantive examination of the petition."

Cover photo: David Talukdar via Getty Images