After being voted out
Sylt’s former mayor is now officially retired
After the mayor was voted out, the search for suitable candidates on the island now begins. Who is positioning himself for the post of mayor is still completely unclear – at least publicly. photo
© Lea Albert/dpa
On Sunday, Sylt residents voted out their mayor early. The vote result and Nikolas Häckel’s retirement are now official – and his path to the monastery is clear.
“We are in the middle of a turning point: We now have many options, are getting a budget again and are thinking about a new administrative structure,” said Markus Gieppner, member of the committee and parliamentary group leader of “Die Insulaner”. There are now numerous projects and an investment backlog on Sylt. “These are an immense challenge, but it is also a great opportunity for us.”
Voting results on Sylt were clear
On Sunday, 4,342 citizens of the Sylt community voted for Häckel’s deselection, while 860 voted against it.
Local politicians decided on July 18th to initiate a recall process against the full-time mayor of Sylt. 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.