“We shouldn’t anticipate democratic processes with rigid borders,” said Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) a few weeks ago – and announced that the maximum age of 67 on election day for district administrators and full-time mayors would be overturned. His cabinet is due to make the decision on this Tuesday. On the other hand, Söder does not shake the minimum age for the office of prime minister, 40 years – as far as Katharina Schulze is concerned, the Greens’ top candidate for the state elections, 37 years old. Is that all correct? And conclusive? Asked about by local politicians at the upper and lower end of the age scale.
Herbert Eckstein.
(Photo: private)
Basically could Herbert Eckstein, 67, District Administrator in Roth, SPD, be happy about the said age limit. Because if that didn’t exist, he would probably never have become the “longest-serving district administrator” in Bavaria. After all, his SPD colleague Heinrich Trapp had to stop in Dingolfing-Landau in 2020 because of this age limit. But Eckstein cares just as little about superlatives or career doorbells as he does about conventional political speakers – and consequently puts it this way: “The age limit is shit.” Why? The answer, says the district administrator, whether someone still “likes to go to the people”, still has enough “strength, dynamism and excitement” for the tasks – this answer can only be found individually for oneself. Not as a formalized age guide. Eckstein has been a district administrator since 1993, and he is often annoyed by the “superficiality and the rum-sodering” of younger political generations. He no longer has to think about whether he would continue anyway, he says. He will retire on April 1 due to health issues.
Rita Rohrl.
(Photo: imago images/teutopress)
As for the years of life, Rita Rohrl, 69, the oldest district administrator in Bavaria. “And the wisest,” she jokes. If the age limit falls, it should start again when the people in the Lower Bavarian district of Regen vote again on October 8th, one day before their 70th birthday. Will she? No, “I’ve been in local politics since 1978 and it’s just enough for me”. So is one over 70 too old for the office? “Absolutely not,” says Röhrl (SPD).
It is “idiotic” that there is no maximum limit for federal presidents and ministers, but there is in local politics. And: “If the majority of the population is getting older, I don’t think it’s right if you are only represented by very young people.” It is up to the voter to decide whether someone is suitable. On the other hand, “a bit of life experience is also part of it,” she thinks an age limit for the office of prime minister is in order. Although “a 30-year-old can be quite reasonable and a 50-year-old can be stupid,” says Röhrl, “to become prime minister straight away, I don’t find that so exciting.”
Christian of Waldenfels.
(Photo: Nicolas Armer/dpa)
Christian of Waldenfels was elected honorary mayor of Lichtenberg in Upper Franconia three years ago, when he was 19 years old, Bavaria’s youngest town hall chief. One could imagine him making skeptical remarks about politicians who have been in office for a long time, possibly too long. After all, last year he challenged the long-time professional politician Alexander König within the party to inherit him as a direct candidate for the CSU in the state elections – and successfully. But Waldenfels, 22, also likes the planned age limit. “Age is just one factor,” he says, more important is personality, passion and ability. And if the voters in a municipality would like to see a particular, particularly committed and suitable person continue to work in the town hall or district office, but a provision has so far prevented this from happening, then he can only say: “That’s fatal.”
Claudia Alphonse.
(Photo: Stefan Alfons)
It’s already “difficult enough to find people for these offices at all”, especially in rural areas, says Claudia Alphonse, 40, non-party mayor in Lindau on Lake Constance. That’s why she thinks it’s good when the age limit in local politics falls. “I think the citizen is already so mature that he can get an idea of who he is handing over responsibility to,” says Alfons, who was relatively young at 37 when she won the mayoral election in Lindau in spring 2020. Should you also be allowed to become prime minister at this age? She really doesn’t know “why you shouldn’t be qualified at 38 or 39 and suddenly you are at 40,” says Alfons.
Alois Kling.
(Photo: private)
Who Alois Kling better to call the landline, he doesn’t like using his cell phone. Kling (CSU) is 77 years old and has been mayor of the small community of Aichen in the Günzburg district since 1996. He is an honorary mayor, which is why the age limit does not apply to him, and thus someone who can tell you what it’s like to be a mayor at almost 80 years of age. “You have to be mentally fit and healthy,” says Kling, then that would be fine. He doesn’t think a rigid age limit is right and remembers what it was like when he became mayor at 51. There were a lot of things he simply didn’t know and the community benefited from the fact that he had more experience ten years later. Sure, it’s certainly “not easy to get rid of someone” if, for example, dementia is present and a mayor doesn’t want to go by himself. But there are ways like a supervisory complaint. He is also against a strict age limit for the office of prime minister and would have nothing against someone under 40 sitting in the state chancellery. The legislative period will end in three years and Kling will then be 80 years old. Then he wants to stop – “if I still experience the period”.
Georg Reinthaler.
(Photo: private)
In his first term as mayor of Eiselfing for Georg Reinthaler There was no age limit, because at that time the Green politician still governed the community in the Rosenheim district on an honorary basis. But he was only 29 when the election was held in 2014. At that time, some would have asked whether he was still too young for the office and whether he – at that time without a family and two children – was interested enough in school and kindergarten. But everyone has to grow into such an office anyway – whether at 29, 60 or 70. Whether someone can also do that “definitely has more to do with the person than with age”. The now 38-year-old has been full-time mayor for three years, so the upper age limit that is now to be abolished applied to him. As prime minister, he would still be too young, like his party friend Schulze. According to Reinthaler, the lower age limit should be lowered to 30 or 25 years, not for their own sake, but in general.
Sibylle Entwistle.
(Photo: Anita Frischhut)
Who Sybille Entwistle (SPD) addresses their age, which is difficult to avoid on this subject, gets a joking “Stop it” back. This year she’s hitting fifty, so she’s nibbling a bit, says the mayor of Vilsbiburg in the Landshut district. In principle, age doesn’t matter to her, at least when it comes to suitability as mayor. The age limit must fall, it is overdue, she says. People are getting older and are still fit at 70. On the one hand. On the other hand, the older the people in office, the greater the generation gap. “Someone who is twenty is completely different from someone who is seventy,” says Entwistle. But those who had a lot of time went into local politics, which then tended to apply to older people. The age limit must fall, yes, at the same time young people must be better motivated to get involved politically. In Vilsbiburg, for example, they have a youth committee, a city council for 14 to 27-year-olds, which also has the right to submit applications to the city council. For the office of prime minister, however, a certain maturity is required, says Entwistle, and there should be limitations.
Christopher Lung.
(Photo: private)
Christopher Lung (CSU) will soon be 34 years old and has been Lord Mayor of Bad Reichenhall since 2020. There will be discussions about extending the working life as a whole and people will have to be trusted and expected to work longer than 67. This also applies to local politicians, Lung believes. If necessary, the voters could decide for themselves whether and why they no longer wanted a candidate. Possibly, however, the legislature should ask itself the question of whether, in the extreme case, an opt-out option would not have to be created. Lung no longer believes that the age limit of 40 for the office of prime minister is up to date.