The Brandenburg Constitutional Court has declared the popular initiative „Health is not a commodity: save hospitals and surgeries!“ inadmissible. According to the press release on the oral decision (case reference: VfGBbg 34/24 of 23.2025), it does not meet the content requirements that arise from the democratic principle of clarity and certainty.

The popular initiative wanted to oblige the state parliament to pass a law with measures for the healthcare sector. This would have included a hospital rescue fund from 2025, additional state doctor grants, full coverage of the training costs for a „Brandenburg practice nurse“ and security grants for contract doctors from the Brandenburg Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians. The initiative had collected and submitted the required 20,000 votes.

As the court has now explained, a popular initiative must be designed in such a way „that those entitled to vote understand the content of the proposed changes, are able to survey their effects and assess the main advantages and disadvantages“. According to the court, this was not the case here. Furthermore, a popular initiative cannot oblige a state parliament to pass a law. Furthermore, it is inadmissible to put various matters to a vote that are not closely related in terms of content and subject matter.