There have never been so many candidates in Frankfurt
On Boxing Day, the application period for the election to the new Frankfurt Lord Mayor ended on March 5: the number of applicants will probably break all records.
Frankfurt – When the people of Frankfurt elect a new mayor on March 5th, they should have the largest selection on the ballot paper so far. The application period for the successor to the deselected Mayor Peter Feldmann (SPD) ended yesterday evening. And there are signs of a record number of candidates, explains Stefan Köster, head of the city office for elections.
There were twelve candidates in 2018, the previous record – this time there should be even more, because 13 people have already made their candidacy public. On the evening of Boxing Day, Köster and his staff were at the Römer in order to correctly execute the end of the application period at 6:00 p.m. and also to empty the mailbox again on time. However, Köster then refused to provide information on the number of candidates or even their names. “Whoever is admitted is decided first by the municipal election committee.” The day on January 6th from 11 a.m. in the Mainhaus-Stadthotel.
By then, the Köster team had checked the application documents. Because the applicants do not only have to be German or EU citizens with their main residence in Germany and at least 18 years old. Individual applicants who are not supported by a party or group of voters must also submit supporter signatures. These must include twice the number of city councillors, i.e. 186 signatures, explains Köster.
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Three candidates are seen as the most promising, to succeed Peter Feldmann, who was found guilty of corruption the day before Christmas Eve. For example, the Greens nominated the former Frankfurt environmental department head Manuela Rottmann, who is currently a member of the Bundestag for her Lower Franconian home region. The long-standing chamberlain, mayor and ex-party leader Uwe Becker, who is currently working as the state secretary for Europe, will stand in for the CDU. Despite the debacle, the Social Democrats want to defend their position with Feldmann and send their hopeful Mike Josef into the race. He has been head of planning since 2016 and is pursuing the long party and back into government in 2016.
From the small parties in the Romans, the Left has set up its spokeswoman for mobility, Daniela Mehler-Würzbach. Group leader and member of the state parliament Yanki Pürsün is running for the FDP – who had asked particularly intensively about the inconsistencies in the Awo affair about Peter Feldmann. The party leader Andreas Lobenstein stands for the AfD, for the “Citizens for Frankfurt” their chairman and parliamentary group leader Mathias Pfeifer. Katharina Tanczos, Chairwoman of the “Party” in the district of Offenbach, is running for “The Party”. The “Team Todenhöfer” has nominated the Frankfurt entrepreneur Khurrem Akhtar (45) as a candidate.
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In addition, four independent candidates have declared: The cultural entrepreneur and organizer of the Green Sauce Festival, Maja Wolff, and the tram driver Peter Wirth, known as “Bahnbabo”. The day before Christmas Eve, Niklas Pauli, chairman of the Riederwald allotment gardeners’ association, also announced his candidacy. His club is currently fighting against having to give up parts of its facility for the new construction of the European School on the fairground on Ratsweg. Carl Maria Schulte, who describes himself as an action artist, has announced a renewed candidacy. He had already competed once before in 2012. After an attack on the Roman’s chief of protocol, a court ordered a psychiatric examination of Schulte in 2015.
Observers assume that due to the large field of applicants, no candidate will achieve an absolute majority on March 5th. It is therefore likely that a runoff election will be necessary on March 26th.