This is a disappointing result. Fewer people took part in the now counted elections for the district senior citizens’ representatives than in the previous election in 2017. In Tempelhof-Schoeneberg only 4253 people went to the polls, which was just 4.1 percent of those who took part. Neukölln recorded 4.72 percent turnout, Reinickendorf 4.98 percent, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf 5.31 percent, Pankow 4.84 percent. Around 900,000 people over the age of 60 were entitled to vote in Berlin. The result is particularly disappointing because, compared to 2017, the forthcoming election was reported in much more detail and extensively – but also because of numerous glitches in the delivery of voting rights. In Steglitz-Zehlendorf alone, turnout increased – but only by one percent to 7.31 percent.
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The volunteers in the senior citizens’ representations will perceive the low level of participation as disdain for their work. That is really not satisfactory, says Erwin Bender, the deputy chairman of the state senior citizens’ representation. He points out that in local elections a far greater effort is put into informing those entitled to vote than in the case of senior citizen representation elections. “There are worlds in between.” A quarter of Berliners are over 60 years old and make up a third of those eligible to vote in normal elections to the state parliament. It is a glaring disparity that in the run-up to the election in the districts there was sometimes not even a public presentation of candidates. The brochure with the candidates was not sent with the election notification either. The brochure was only given to those who had previously registered to vote by post – with an envelope to be stamped at their own expense. The fact that there were only a few polling stations may also have kept people from voting. Some have shied away from the long journey, speculates Erwin Bender. The many mishaps in the run-up to the election were seen by people – whether voters or the senior citizens’ representatives themselves – as evidence of the contempt for the committee. All the more so because no high-ranking state politicians publicly campaigned for the election.
Erwin Bender, who has been chairman of the Neukölln senior citizens’ representation for five years, also admits that “certain social groups are difficult to approach”. He means, for example, people with a migrant background.
It is important to use “the wealth of experience of the older generation”. Bender would therefore like to have more competencies in order to upgrade the body. This also includes providing at least minimal financial support for the senior citizens’ representatives. “You have to be able to afford voluntary work,” he says. Instead, the administration replied. Neither would the cost of a mobile phone be covered, nor travel costs, nor paper – or copying costs. “People who volunteer are so demotivated.”
The senior citizens’ representatives have made a difference in the past five years, says Johanna Hambach. The graduate process engineer from Treptow-Köpenick has been chairwoman of the state senior citizens’ representation since 2012. The volunteer representatives, for example, managed to have the issue of accessibility anchored in the Berlin Mobility Act through their intensive commitment. “Accessibility will always concern us,” says Johanna Hambach: “whether for people with walkers or for younger people with prams”.
In doing so, she discreetly points out that the work of the senior citizens’ representatives also improves the quality of life of people who are not senior citizens. All Berliners who are over 60 years old are entitled to vote – even if many of them do not feel old at this age. The district committees are committed to the social participation of this age group and ensure, for example, more age-appropriate, sporting or cultural activities in the district. In addition, the senior citizens’ representatives support them with a self-determined life in old age and with important current issues such as housing/rent, climate, mobility, public transport, care, health, consumer protection, self-help, voluntary work, culture, education and encounters.
Only recently, the senior citizens’ representatives presented the draft of a “state old-age assistance structure law”, the implementation of which is also stipulated by the red-green-red state government in the coalition agreement. The aim is to establish entitlements to advisory services as well as housing assistance. The senior citizens’ representatives also demand that the districts create more places for meeting people, for example in the district centers or neighborhood clubs. A new topic is climate change, for example because of the health problems of older people in connection with heat waves.
The senior citizens’ representatives are particularly committed to digital participation. dr Hambach, for example, is calling for free WiFi for the eleven neighborhood clubs in her Treptow-Köpenick district in order to make it easier for older people to have digital contact with their grandchildren or to keep an electronic account.
“In view of the further decline in voter turnout, we cannot go back to business as usual and hope for the next election,” says Neukölln City Councilor for Social Affairs Falko Liecke (CDU): “Berlin must act and put the participation of senior citizens on a completely new footing.” How Bender also believes that Liecke needs to reform the Berlin Senior Citizens’ Participation Act and make senior citizens’ representatives more visible. Specifically, he proposes to pay an expense allowance and attendance fees, to set up district offices for support and a Berlin-wide uniform budget for district senior citizens’ representatives. In addition, the senior citizens’ representatives should be given the right to make applications and speak in the district assemblies.
