Non-smokers to get better protection
Following a randomly selected Citizens' Forum, the government of the German state of Baden-Württemberg introduced a bill to amend the state's non-smoker protection law for debate in the state parliament on 25 November 2025.
The Citizens' Forum is calling for an extension of non-smoker protection. 51 randomly selected citizens discussed this issue between 5 and 26 July 2025. The aim was to prepare an amendment to the state law. On 29 July 2025, a team of spokespersons presented the joint statement to Health Minister Manfred Lucha and State Councillor Barbara Bosch.
Extension of non-smoker protection in outdoor areas
The Citizens' Forum welcomes the renewal of the law. In its statement, the mini-public advocates extending non-smoker protection in outdoor areas. Not only at bus and tram stops and children's playgrounds, as provided for in the draft law, but also in
- cultural and leisure facilities,
- sports facilities, outdoor swimming pools, bathing lakes, zoos,
- beer gardens, open-air events and
- in the entrance areas of all publicly accessible facilities.
In addition, the Citizens' Forum advocates that smoking should be prohibited in beer tents, wine tents and festival marquees in future. There should no longer be separate smoking rooms in restaurants and discotheques. A majority of citizens are also in favour of smoking bans in outdoor catering establishments, but also in favour of retaining shisha bars and smoking pubs.
Well-founded opinion
Stephanie Wagner-Haas, forum member and part of the spokesperson team, emphasises: ‘It has become clear to us that people who need special protection are often unable to avoid the dangers of passive smoking. This should be changed.’
Hannes Adam, also a representative of the Citizens' Forum, praises the process. ‘Every age group, i.e. the broad demographic spectrum, was well represented,’ he notes. ‘In my view, the exchange between citizens contributed greatly to the formation of well-informed opinions.’
Minister Lucha and State Councillor Bosch thanked the participants for their work. The recommendations will now be incorporated into further consultations on the law.
Participation scoping and online participation
The Citizens' Forum was preceded by a so-called participation scoping. This marked the start of the dialogue-based citizen participation process on 22 July 2024. Nearly 20 associations and interest groups from all over Baden-Württemberg were consulted. The result of the participation scoping was a thematic map that was expanded compared to the original version of the Service Centre for Dialogic Citizen Participation BW.
The public was able to comment on this map online on the Baden-Württemberg participation portal from 26 July to 16 August 2024. A total of 774 comments and 37,186 ratings were received on the state's participation portal. The questions for online participation were: Which topics are missing from the topic map? What do we need to add? The list of potential experts for the Citizens' Forum could also be supplemented and commented on.
Theme map created
This resulted in a theme map showing the issues to be addressed in the Citizens' Forum. These included, for example, the places where smoking should be permitted. The protection of children and young people, health in general and the interests of restaurateurs and event organisers was also discussed.
In parallel with the mini-public, 35 associations expressed their views during the regular hearing on the amendment to the law, and 116 associations had the opportunity to submit comments.
Normal legislative procedure supplemented
‘The usual legislative procedure remains unchanged,’ emphasised Ulrich Arndt, head of the BW Citizen Participation Service Centre. The Ministry of Social Affairs, Health and Integration had drawn up a draft consultation paper, which had been agreed upon by the governing coalition of the Green Party and the CDU. The Council of Ministers will formally adopt it on 8 July 2025. This will be followed by a hearing of associations. In addition, the entire population can comment on the draft law on the state's participation portal.
The special feature of the process was that the Citizens' Forum deliberated in parallel with the consultation of associations and online citizen participation. In addition to the draft bill, the randomly selected participants were presented with a broad spectrum of opinions. These ranged from the strictest health protection to a very liberal approach. Their task was to rank the issues and views raised according to their importance and relevance.
Reflection of the population
For the Citizens' Forum, a total of 7,500 people from 15 municipalities in Baden-Württemberg were randomly selected and contacted by the Citizen Participation Service Centre. The 15 municipalities were also randomly selected from the four regional councils of the state, taking into account the different sizes of the municipalities.
Based on the responses from the citizens who were contacted, the final composition of the Citizens' Forum was determined. As 450 people were interested in participating, the participants were selected by lottery. The composition of mini-public corresponded to the distribution of the state's population among the regional councils, different age groups and people with different educational qualifications and with and without a migrant background.
51 participants
A total of 51 people were participating in the Citizens' Forum. The oldest participants were born in 1953, the youngest in 2008. They came from the municipalities of Aspach, Ebhausen, Erbach, Gemmingen, Gutach, Karlsruhe, Meßkirch, Mosbach, Reutlingen, Rheinau, Rheinfelden, Sternenfels, Waiblingen and Weinstadt.
The randomly selected forum met four times in total, twice of which were held online. The last meeting took place on 26 July 2025. All forum members received an expense allowance of €250 for their participation.
Legislative amendment introduced in state parliament
On 25 November 2025, the Council of Ministers gave the green light for the revised State Non-Smokers' Protection Act to be submitted to the state parliament for parliamentary debate.
The amendment is intended to provide significantly better protection against the health risks of passive smoking, particularly for children, young people, the elderly and the chronically ill. One of the new features of the law is that the protection of non-smokers is no longer limited to traditional tobacco products. E-cigarettes, tobacco heaters and similar products – regardless of their nicotine or cannabis content – will also be included in future.
Key points of the new regulation
The key points of the new regulation are:
- Inclusion of e-cigarettes, tobacco heaters and similar products in the scope of the law.
- General smoking ban in all publicly accessible indoor areas.
- Smoking ban outdoors in public children's playgrounds and at bus and tram stops for local public transport. Smoking is also no longer permitted in school playgrounds.
- The extension of smoking bans to certain outdoor areas such as zoos, amusement parks and outdoor swimming pools, as suggested by the Citizens' Forum and in the hearing, has been included in the draft law – with the possibility of designating clearly demarcated smoking areas.
- Exceptions are still possible, but are now clearer and more restrictive overall.
- The state government has weighed up different interests, goods and needs in the catering sector. Smoking will still be permitted in separate smoking rooms in restaurants and discotheques, but only adults will be allowed to enter these rooms. The existence of a separate smoking room must be indicated at the entrance to the establishment.
- On the recommendation of the Citizens' Forum and based on the hearing, the draft law provides for an increase in the maximum fines for violations of the smoking ban to up to 200 euros, and up to 500 euros for repeat offences.
Some of the proposals made by the Citizens' Forum were thus incorporated into the current draft law, while others, such as a smoking ban in beer tents and outdoor restaurants, were not.
Exchange with the Citizens' Forum
Immediately after the cabinet meeting, Health Minister Manne Lucha and Barbara Bosch, State Councillor for Civil Society and Citizen Participation, exchanged views with the Citizens' Forum. ‘It was important to us to respond to the Citizens' Forum members' comments and suggestions in a personal conversation,’ emphasised the State Councillor.
‘This law is a joint effort, an example of the policy of being heard. The contributions from civil society and associations have made our draft even stronger and clearer,’ said Minister Lucha. ‘On behalf of the state government, I would like to express my sincere thanks to all members of the Citizens' Forum. Your commitment, your time and your knowledgeable, constructive contributions have helped shape the draft law. This was citizen participation at its best.’
‘A moment of glory’
Ulrich Arndt, head of the Citizen Participation Service Centre, spoke of a ‘moment of glory’. He said that the fact that not all of the citizens' suggestions made it into the draft bill was a positive thing. It showed people how politics works. And ‘everyone understood that after the discussion’.
The Health Minister had ‘confronted the citizens' forum with political reality,’ said Arndt. He had explained that in some areas, the interests of the catering industry also had to be taken into account and that compromises had to be made, ‘without any sugar-coating’. In doing so, he had spoken not only as Health Minister but as a representative of the ‘entire government,’ according to Arndt.