Is Frankfurt enough for itself?
WIn the next few weeks, as the mayoral election campaign in Frankfurt enters the hot phase, there will probably be many detailed questions: fares, cleanliness, bicycle lanes, drug policy, greening of squares, rents and other issues that move local politics. Candidates will announce many things that they will not be able to implement in case of doubt, because in the end the majority of the magistrate and city parliament will decide. The Hessian Municipal Code does not provide for the Lord Mayor’s authority to set guidelines, for example allowing the Federal Chancellor to issue fundamental guidelines to the ministers.
The special democratic legitimacy that a Hessian mayor experiences through direct election is astonishingly disproportionate to his actual rights. This is particularly true in Frankfurt, where eleven full-time department heads run their departments independently and basically don’t need a mayor at all. The city government works that way too, and thanks to the high tax revenues that flow lavishly even in difficult times, it does it largely silently.