On July 15, 2025, the municipal council of the state capital of Stuttgart decided to draw up a development plan for area A2, the current access tracks of the terminus station, by 16 votes in favor and 3 against. A citizens' initiative had already announced a petition under the title "Mehr Bahnhof = Mehr Zukunft" ("More station = More future") against this decision and started collecting signatures at a kick-off event on July 15. The aim of the collection of signatures was to bring about a referendum on the resolution already passed by the municipal council.
In-depth review completed
Within the statutory three-month period, over 20,000 signatures were collected and submitted to the City of Stuttgart by the deadline on the evening of October 15. An examination by the Statistical Office revealed that 18,270 of these signatures were valid. This means that they were submitted by people who are EU citizens, have been registered in Stuttgart for at least three months and are over 16 years old. The required number of 20,000 valid signatures was therefore not reached, as the Statistical Office announced on Friday, October 31, 2025.
After the three months had expired, further signatures were submitted to the city in the following days. These were also checked. By October 27, a total of 19,835 valid signatures had been received by the Statistical Office. As the 20,000 valid signatures required to reach the quorum were not reached even with the signatures submitted subsequently, the question of the different legal assessment of the deadline by the city administration on the one hand and the citizens' initiative on the other is not relevant.
