Can’t vote in Berlin? There are a million people like you. We’re giving them a voice.
That’s the message of WahlheYmat’s new StimmlosTrend campaign, which launches today.
Modern democracy is built on elections. In Berlin, the House of Representatives is elected every five years by eligible German citizens (EU citizens can only vote in district elections).
But Berlin has changed.
Today, around one million people who live permanently in the city cannot vote. They come from more than 170 countries. They work here, pay taxes, raise families, build companies and help shape Berlin every day. Yet their voices are largely missing from public debate.
At WahlheYmat, we believe this presents a democratic challenge.
We cannot give people a vote. But we can give them a voice.
Every month, researchers publish the BerlinTrend, measuring the opinions of eligible voters. We believe it’s time to listen to everyone else as well.
Through this survey, we want to understand how Berliners without voting rights see the city’s future, how they participate today, what they think about Berlin’s governance, and whether they would vote if they had the opportunity.
Today we’re launching a pilot survey. But this is only the beginning.
Over the coming weeks, we’re looking for StimmlosTrend Ambassadors from Berlin’s many international communities — people who can help us reach their friends, neighbours and networks, so that in late August and September we can carry out the first large-scale, representative StimmlosTrend survey.
If you’d like to help make sure your community is heard, write to us at hey@wahlheymat.de.
We want to make the voices of international Berliners as visible as those captured by the BerlinTrend. Together with our media partner, the Berliner Morgenpost, we’ll bring the results into the public debate before the election.
Our ambition is to make the voices of international Berliners impossible to ignore.
Berlin has changed forever. Now its democracy needs to catch up.
If you can’t vote, start by completing the survey.
Let’s make every voice heard!
(Header image: © Glen Carrie | Unsplash)
