After an affair about fake accounts in Bamberg’s local politics, SPD parliamentary group leader Klaus Stieringer announced his departure from the party and parliamentary group. “I’m tired. Tired of the always identical allegations from political opponents, but also from my own party,” the city councilor said Franconian day. “At some point you get worn down, I’m tired of it.” The Bamberg SPD should “be able to concentrate on their projects and the city society again”. But he wanted to remain on the city council as a “lone fighter without a faction”. Several media had reported on Stieringer’s announcement.
Stieringer resigned from his position as parliamentary group leader in the city council in January after he approved that accounts with false names in a Facebook group with topics of Bamberg’s local politics expressed themselves partly pro-SPD. Users in the group are said to have jumped to the side of the SPD under a false name and in some cases were critical of the reporting in the local press – this was initially revealed by research by the Bamberg cabaret artist Florian Herrnleben.
When asked about this in the Bavarian Radio program “Quer”, Stieringer said in December 2021: “I know many of them, I even know them well” – meaning the people behind the accounts. Fake accounts give people the opportunity to move around anonymously on social networks while protecting their personal rights. “I think that’s okay.” He later spoke of a mistake. Compared to the Franconian day Stieringer emphasized again that he himself was not behind the accounts. “I know the account holders well,” said Stieringer. “But I will not communicate the names.”