City Council meeting: No gifts for voluntarily handing in driving licences Video

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There is a certain irony in the fact that two city councillors – one from the BSW and one from the AfD – have jointly tabled a motion with the misleading title ‘Pilot project: Voluntary driving licence exchange’. The title is misleading because, as you know, old driving licences – the grey and pink ones, and some older card-style ones – currently have to be exchanged. However, that was not the subject of the motion; rather, the driving licence itself was to become the object of exchange. If you hand it in voluntarily, you should be rewarded, for example, with free travel, extensive discounts or subsidies for regional public transport.

The irony does not lie in the fact that city councillors from the BSW and AfD have found common ground here; that is something both parties must sort out amongst themselves, with their consciences and their parliamentary groups. The irony is that Marius Beyer (AfD) tabled a motion whose content his own parliamentary group – including himself – had vehemently opposed as recently as 2021.

What was the situation in 2021?

Perhaps some of you will recall that, before the 9-euro ticket and, subsequently, the Deutschlandticket were introduced, there was a heated debate over the introduction of a 365-euro ticket. This was the case on 21 April 2021, when the Leipzig City Council debated the joint motion by the SPD and Die Linke entitled ‘Taking the first steps towards the 365-euro ticket’. This ticket was initially intended for holders of the Leipzig Pass and people aged 27 and under. The Freibeuter parliamentary group tabled a motion proposing that senior citizens who voluntarily surrender their driving licences and thus do without a car should also be eligible for this 365-euro ticket.

From the verbatim minutes of the council meeting, comments from the AfD:

Councillor Keller: “The Freibeuter’s amendment also amounts to nothing. Older citizens who have handed in their driving licences travel by train anyway. Do the Freibeuter want to deprive public transport of this revenue as well?”

Councillor Kriegel: “In my view, too, the Freibeuter motion is the height of impudence. Punishing a pensioner who has a car on their doorstep – and who, after all, has every right to go on holiday three or four times a year because they’ve earned it over their entire working life – simply because they haven’t handed in their car cannot be the aim. However, this has already been discussed, and many here in our council meeting agree on this.”

What started out as the voluntary surrender of a driving licence – in other words, what Councillor Beyer is now proposing as a ‘driving licence exchange’ – has simply been twisted into a compulsory surrender, and even the Lord Mayor has gone along with this distortion, stating: “To be frank: I do not wish to consider requiring senior citizens to hand in their driving licences. I believe this approach is misguided, and I would like this to be put to a vote.”

Back to 1 July 2026

This time there was no discussion; Marius Beyer (AfD), who was already on the City Council in 2021, and Sascha Jecht (BSW) spoke on the motion; their reasons can be heard in the video. Chantal Schneiß (Alliance 90/The Greens) then took the floor. She said: “Just a very brief comment – as Mr Beyer has highlighted Tübingen so much, I just wanted to put on record once again that this measure has since been abolished in Tübingen. This was done, amongst other things, with the votes of the AfD, which is why I find it rather interesting that people here now think this is a good thing – it seems there isn’t complete agreement within the party either.”

The motion was rejected by 19 votes to 41, with 3 abstentions.

Conclusion: Regardless of the circumstances surrounding the motion, it remains regrettable that there is still no incentive for older people to voluntarily give up their driving licence and, consequently, their car.