Markus Söder wants to abolish the age limit for mayors and that’s when all eyes are on the state capital. Dieter Reiter from the SPD would pave the way for a third term in office, but above all his Greens competitor Katrin habenschaden would hardly be the favorite in the 2026 mayoral election. A mayor of the Greens in the heart of the Söder territory? Would cause particularly unpleasant attention nationwide.
In the prime minister’s cosmos, not only does Munich play a special municipal role, but also his hometown, Nuremberg. Anyone who has been allowed (and has to) watch Söder at work for a long time cannot possibly have escaped the fact that there is hardly anything he prefers to talk about than his services to a certain large city in Franconia. The revamped Wöhrder See? That was me, Markus Söder! The German Museum in Nuremberg? Me, Soeder! The new university, the beautification of the Kaiserburg? Me, me, all me.
The fact that there should no longer be an age limit for mayors in Söder-City in the future only plays no role there at first glance. The man who won the city hall for the CSU in 2020, Marcus König, in Nuremberg, which is deeply influenced by social democracy, is 42. He can run for a very long time, one way or another.
For the second mayor, Julia Lehner, 68, it would have been the end after this term. Which no longer has to be the case. You shouldn’t underestimate that: in 2020, the young and bold king and the prominent cultural politician Lehner ostentatiously started as a Christian-social political tandem – and had given the Bavarian SPD a stab in their historical heart chamber.
But there is another side effect – and that should also come in handy for Söder. He aims inside the Nuremberg CSU. She has long since arranged everything for the time without Lehner, a job shuffling: A new CSU economics officer is coming (so that it doesn’t get too male in the town hall), but the CSU boss can finally become second mayor in the city council.
What is less publicly known: Söder is, to put it politely, not always completely happy with the political performance of his party friends in Nuremberg City Hall. Julia Lehner, on the other hand, he appreciates as a partner, the line is short. Now Markus Söder would have an interesting means of pressure: If he persuades Lehner to continue – one or the other career path in Nuremberg would have to be reconsidered.