Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Bavarian
Christian Social Union ally wants to let Germans vote in
referendums on major European Union integration moves.

Voters in Germany should be asked to approve EU treaty
changes, the transfer of further power to Brussels and the
admission of new countries to the 27-nation bloc, according to a
declaration adopted today by the party in Wildbad Kreuth,
Bavaria.

“We have to bring the EU closer to the people again,”
Gerda Hasselfeldt, the Bundestag caucus leader for the CSU, said
at a press conference in the mountain resort. “When fundamental
decisions meaning big financial involvement are made, the way
for people’s referendums should be opened.”

State elections in Bavaria, home to Siemens AG and
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, will be held in September. National
German elections will be held in the same month. The CSU, which
has ruled Bavaria for more than 50 years, faces competition from
the Free Voters party that opposes bailouts for Germany’s euro-
area partners.

The Free Voters, which won 10.2 percent in the last
Bavarian election in 2008, polled at 9 percent in an Infratest
dimap survey published today by broadcaster Bayerischer
Rundfunk. The CSU polled 47 percent and its Free Democratic
Party coalition partner was at 3 percent — below the 5 percent
threshold needed to win seats in parliament under German
electoral law. The main opposition Social Democratic Party is at
19 percent.

The CSU also demands an orderly procedure for the default
and exit from the currency union of euro area members.

Allowing German EU referendums would require a change of
Germany’s Basic Law, the constitution, the paper says.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Joseph de Weck in Wildbad Kreuth at
jdeweck@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
James Hertling at
jhertling@bloomberg.net