Westend-Süd is a liberal stronghold
In the federal election, the FDP was the only district to win the Westend-Süd. Why? We tried to explore that. The search for traces leads to Maria-Christina Nimmerfroh.
We are in the year 50 BC. All of Gaul is occupied by the Romans …, wrong time, wrong no place: We are in the year 2021. All of Frankfurt is occupied by black-red-green. All of Frankfurt? No! There is a small, yellow spot on the electoral map of the federal election. In the overall Frankfurt result, the Liberals increased their 2017 result by 0.7 percentage points and received a total of 14.8 percent of all Frankfurt votes. The Westend-Süd was won by the Liberals with 26.6 percent of the vote and made a yellow spot on the map – a small, liberal Gaulish village.
They even lost 1.3 percent of the vote there compared to the 2017 federal election. In 2017, the FDP did not have enough votes to decide Westend-Süd for itself. It has not improved either, but this constituency is now one of the strongholds of the FDP in the republic. In a comparison of the total results of the big cities, there are the most FDP contacts in Stuttgart with 16 percent, in Frankfurt with 14.8 percent and Düsseldorf with 14.3 percent. The worst cut was the FDP in Cologne with 4.7 percent. The west end south is the lighthouse.
How does it come about that the Westend-Süd has turned yellow? Finding someone who admits that he voted for the FDP is impossible – perhaps if only because you don’t like to talk about where you put your cross. Perhaps also because the sworn community of South-Westendlers thinks like the people of the Gallic village and prefers to cook their own soup, or rather, make a magic potion?
Maybe there is an Asterix somewhere, “a little cunning warrior, full of sparkling intelligence, to whom all dangerous jobs are entrusted without hesitation and who draws his superhuman powers from the magic potion of the druid Miraculix”, like his fathers, the comic legends Goscinny and Uderzo, have described him? Who lives in the area of the local advisory council 2 and could be responsible for the liberal enclave? Someone who trusts Asterix qualities?
“I think everyone would like to be Asterix,” says Maria-Christina Nimmerfroh in a café on the corner of Kettenhofweg. Your magic drink this morning is a latte macchiato. She likes the analogy to Asterix a lot. Asterix is characterized by strategic considerations and by not being afraid of “direct contact” – and here she sees parallels to her party and an approach to explain the good federal election results in the south of the West End.
Maria-Christina Never happy an Asterix? With dangerous jobs? Yes, she has already been booed at a rally by 500 people, she says. But you don’t see direct contact. Although it does not box Romans – although the term “Roman” has yet to be defined in the party-political business – but it is not defenseless. And, take note: your uncle was a German weightlifting champion – an Obelix?
Disagreements in the Frankfurt FDP in the end of 2020 for Maria-Christina Nimmerfroh with the fact that. Acta est fabula – over is over. The party once certified it had an “image problem” – a problem that the Gauls do not have. Until April 2021, she was still on local advisory board 2, headed the FDP parliamentary group there, and thus helped shape most of the time before the federal election.
You didn’t offer the residents in Westend-Süd any money to vote for the FDP, she says and smiles. Man shouldn’t do that either, and if people die, they would certainly be very surprised at how little money a party has at their disposal, if they go into the not very serious question of the recipe for success.
she makes a “pairing between the lifestyle and the urbanity of the district” between the Westend-Süd and her party, which stands for individuality and in which the concept of freedom – as in the Gallic village – plays a major role: “Freedom means Not only personal freedom, but also economic freedom. That has to do with the opportunities for advancement. The people who live here have not inherited anything, they have worked for it. ” And that is an important point in liberalism: “The possibility of advancement can be seen here in Westend-Süd.” That is how you identify yourself.
In addition, the FDP has spoken to the citizens, made on-site appointments, stood on the street with a folding rule and measured it in order to check the suitability of the traffic concepts being considered – she says: “Our strength was that we looked at every little thing.” You have to talk to people, ask them questions and take them seriously, “in the reality of their lives and not in the ideal that one would like to have in politics”. Their motto: “Politics takes place with people – it is a sport with and for people.”
As a psychologist, she believes that “it is about a similarity between politicians and citizens”, “that one has the feeling that dying are similar to us, dying are sympathetic to us. People choose an attitude towards life rather than an election manifesto. In the case of the FDP, be That is freedom, tolerance, the idea of advancement, responsibility and individual possibilities. That is a bit in line with Asterix, and there are also: community spirit, clout, the bard Troubadix, Obelix, Idefix, roast wild boar and (“At the Teutates!”) of course the magic potion. Maria-Christina Nimmerfroh says: “Party programs and election campaigns are a bit like a magic potion – the recipe has to be right.”