State merger of Rhineland-Palatinate-Saarland

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Restructuring proposal for the federal territory according to the Döring model from 2003; dark blue a new federal state formed from Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland

In the course of a possible reorganization of the federal territory , the merger of the federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland is being discussed. The creation of a common federal state has been the subject of heated discussions since the Saarland joined the Federal Republic of Germany in 1957 .

Merger

In this part of a possible reorganization of the federal territory, the Saarland is to merge with Rhineland-Palatinate . In the press, the names Rheinland-Saarpfalz and Saar-Rheinland are used for the merged product . Occasionally there is only talk of Saarpfalz . The name Rhineland-Palatinate could also be kept, since the Saarland consists of parts of the former Prussian Rhineland and the former Bavarian Palatinate .

Positions

Saarland

Incorporation into Rhineland-Saar-Palatinate would weaken the identity of the Saarland, which was at times a separate state (see History of the Saarland ). On the other hand, it must be taken into account that all of today's German federal states are ultimately art constructs from a large number of historical territories, cf. Particularism . The Saarland emerged as an area around today's borders from those areas that were separated from Germany after the First World War in 1919 as a result of the Treaty of Versailles and placed under international administration. The fate of being torn back and forth between Germany and France, again after the Second World War , resulted in a distinct regional identity.

In 2006, around 51 percent of Saarlanders rejected a merger mainly with this identity argument. Around 35 percent would support this option, 14 percent are unsure. A 2012 survey indicated a change in trend. Most of the older Saarlanders agree to a merger. In contrast, according to a survey by Infratest dimap in 2013, 68 percent were in favor of the Saarland becoming independent, while 29 percent were in favor of a merger with Rhineland-Palatinate.

The state government under Prime Minister Peter Müller categorically rejected a merger in 2006, and the opposition also agreed on it.

Rhineland-Palatinate

The Rhineland-Palatinate state government under Kurt Beck advocated a merger of the two countries in the same year, while the opposition described this as "financial suicide".

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Hippchen: Zoom current ( Memento of 2 October 2007 at the Internet Archive ) . In: SaarZoom . April 2006.
  2. ↑ Oliver Georgi: Saarlanders would give up their federal state . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Edition of April 19, 2012.
  3. ↑ SaarlandTrend ( memento of April 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), May 2013 from Infratest dimap , accessed on June 5, 2015.
  4. ↑ Saarlanders insist on independence . In: Der Tagesspiegel . December 30, 2006.
  5. ↑ Heinz-Hermann Schnabel: This is how Rhineland-Palatinate is finally led into an extreme budget emergency ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) . In: Media portal of the party and parliamentary group of the CDU Rhineland-Palatinate . 131/2006.