After being voted out
Nikolas Häckel officially becomes the ex-mayor of Sylt
There had been quarrels over the mayor’s office in the town hall in Westerland for months, and on Sunday Nikolas Häckel was voted out by the people of Sylter. photo
© Lea Albert/dpa
By a large majority, citizens on the North Sea island had prematurely removed the head of administration of the municipality of Sylt from office. However, the result of the vote is not yet official.
On Sunday, 4,342 citizens of the Sylt community voted for Häckel’s deselection, while 860 voted against it.
On July 18, local politicians decided to initiate a recall process against the full-time mayor of Sylt, Häckel. He had led the administration on the North Sea island since 2015 and wanted to return to the executive chair after surviving burnout.
Häckel calmly accepted the vote on Sylt
The politicians accused the Sylter native of, among other things, years of budget misery, a lack of communication, a lack of trust and inadequacies in his administrative work.
Häckel himself accepted his deselection calmly: Next week he wanted to go to a monastery in Bavaria and spend at least three months there, the 50-year-old told dpa. According to the municipal regulations, a new mayor must be elected in six months at the latest. Until then, Carsten Kerkamm (CDU) will be in charge of official business on the island.