Bavarian Senate

The Senate's main role was consulting other state institutions and delivering legal opinion.

It also had the power to delay state legislation passed by the Landtag within a month (one week for urgent acts).

In June 1997, a popular initiative petition sponsored by the Ecological Democratic Party gained 927,047 signatures (10.5% of those entitled to vote).

In the following referendum on 8 February 1998, which yielded a turnout of 39.9%, a majority of 69.2% voted for the law amending the State Constitution to abolish the Senate.

A counter-proposal by the ruling Christian Social Union, which would have changed the composition of the Senate, only received 23.6%.