Lessons for Frankfurt from the federal election
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fromGeorg Leppert
conclude
Greens and SPD seem to be doing right in many Romans. The CDU makes it too easy for itself when it seeks to blame for the election defeat in the federal trend.
A federal election is a fine thing for local politics. If things go well, the local politicians can say that their course has been confirmed. If, on the other hand, there are substantial losses, then the national trend is always to blame. You can’t do anything, the choice was made in Berlin.
It’s no different in Frankfurt. CDU party leader Jan Schneider sees the hesitant Christian Democrats as victims of Armin Laschet’s failure. Meanwhile, especially among the Greens, it was said on election night: The Frankfurt result was achieved in Frankfurt. This is certainly not wrong.
Let’s look at the numbers: The Greens have clearly won in Frankfurt compared to the federal election four years ago, the SPD is also recording growth, while the CDU has downright collapsed. A minus of eight points is bitter.
The Christian Democrats can argue that then as now – 2017 and 2021 – they were about six percent below the national average, from which it could be concluded that everything is correct only if you look at the map in which every district in the color marked by the strongest political force, one can see that in 2017 Frankfurt was quickly consistently black. This time the CDU has won a few more districts in the north. Where the fields and fields are dying and people are dying are afraid of Lord Mayor Peter Feldmann (SPD) and his motto “Build, Build, Build”, the CDU is chosen there in order to be able to counteract social democratic dreams of large housing estates on Frei. But in the districts in the other cardinal directions, the Union does poorly, and the city center and neighboring districts such as Nordend, Gallus or Westend were lost in this election campaign from the start.
If you then remember the very moderate election result in the local elections, the question automatically arises as to what the CDU is actually doing wrong in Frankfurt. Sure, she is too hesitant about climate protection, but that is indeed a nationwide phenomenon. In Frankfurt, on the other hand, one should critically examine whether it was really a good idea not to let Matthias Zimmer, a member of the Bundestag in the constituency 182 of the left wing, run and to replace him with Axel Kaufmann. Sure, the members decided that way, but the board of directors around Jan Schneider could have moderated this decision differently.
In local politics, meanwhile, one wonders why the CDU considers it a smart tactic to work off Peter Feldmann of all people. The personal relationship between the CDU people in the magistrate and the mayor was bad. Feldmann annoyed the Christian Democrats with his part of uncollegial item no. But this mayor was elected with more than 70 percent in a runoff election against the CDU candidate Bernadette Weyland in 2018. The people of Frankfurt want Peter Feldmann as head of the city. This puts the CDU in danger of appearing petty and matter-of-fact when it is constantly looking for mistakes in Feldmann.
On the other hand, the Greens and the SPD have at least not done much wrong since the local elections. Both could have some concerns about whether the voters really appreciate the new coalition with FDP and Volt. A large group had spoken out clearly against an alliance with the FDP and pleaded for a coalition with the left. At the same time there were also Greens and Social Democrats who found dealing with the CDU in the coalition negotiations shabby and wanted to at least examine a continuation of the black-red-green alliance. If these two groups had turned away from their parties, the Greens would not have become the strongest force again in Frankfurt and the SPD would not have done five percentage points better than in the local elections.
But it turned out differently. While the city councilors of the CDU in the Römer give the impression that the new coalition is harmful to Frankfurt (which is part of committed opposition work), voters apparently rate the new politics in Frankfurt quite differently.
And so there was a party mood among the Greens and Social Democrats on Monday night, and the CDU felt the great dreariness.