Poll: Nearly one third of Bavarians favor independence from Germany

Almost one in three people in southern German state of Bavaria favor independence from Germany, German media reported on Monday, citing a newly-released survey.


A total of 32 percent of Bavarians supports independence for the region, which marks the highest such independence streak of the country's 16 states, according to a survey carried out by the market research firm YouGov for the popular German daily newspaper Bild.

This was a higher percentage than any of the other 15 German states surveyed, with residents of both Saarland and Thuringia tied at second place at 22 percent, according to the English digital news publisher The Local.

Not far behind were Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, each at 21 percent, and Saxony-Anhalt with 20 percent.

The wealthy state of Bavaria, well known for its Oktoberfest beer festival and its traditional culture, is Germany's largest state by land area and its second-most populous state, with more than 12.8 million residents.

The state with its own dialect and cultural traditions even has its own independence movement party -- the Bavarian Party -- albeit less influential than separatist groups in places like Spain or Scotland, according to The Local.

The percentage of Bavarians who favored starting their own country was higher than in previous polls, such as one in 2011 by the Hanns Seidel Foundation, which found that nearly a quarter of Bavarians wanted independence, according to German public radio station Deutschlandfunk.

But Germany's Constitutional Court already settled the matter of whether Bavaria could hold a Brexit-style referendum.

The court in January rejected a man's bid to hold such a vote, arguing that Germany's constitution does not allow for individual states to break away, The Local reported.
  [globaltimes.cn/Xinhua]
18/7/17