“Take time to think”
Non-party Boris Palmer returns to Tübingen City Hall after a break
Drawn strength: Tübingen’s Lord Mayor Boris Palmer, here in an archive picture
© ULMER Press Photo Agency / Imago Images
Tübingen’s Lord Mayor Boris Palmer will be out of office for a month to deal with the scandal surrounding his use of the “N-word”. He will be appearing in public again next week.
A month after the start of his break, Tübingen’s Lord Mayor is returning Boris Palmer returned to City Hall on Monday. “Boris Palmer’s break ends in June,” said a spokeswoman for the city administration. The first day after the break is therefore next Saturday. Today, Palmer will resume regular service at City Hall.
Palmer will appear publicly as Lord Mayor sooner. “He will be taking individual appointments again from Friday, June 30th,” said the spokeswoman. For example, Palmer is expected on Friday evening at the opening of the Tübingen Summer Festival on the fairground – and can show directly how well he has recovered during his break: According to the organizers, Palmer will tap the barrel “as routinely and brilliantly as in previous years “do it, it says in the invitation to the party.
Scandal on the sidelines of a migration conference
The mayor of Tübingen took a four-week break on June 1st. The reason for this was an uproar surrounding Palmer’s statements on the sidelines of a migration conference in Frankfurt/Main at the end of April. There he had an altercation with a protest group over his use of the “N-word”. The protesters confronted him with shouts of “Nazis out”.
He then said, “It’s nothing but the Star of David. That’s because I used a word that you attach everything else to. If you say the wrong word, you’re a Nazi.” The “N-word” is used today to paraphrase a racist term for black people that was used in Germany in the past.
Companions had also sharply criticized Palmer for the choice of words in Frankfurt am Main. After the escalation, he left the Greens. Before that, his membership in the party had been suspended because of another scandal.
Boris Palmer online again on the road
Palmer reported back on Facebook with a first post on Monday – obviously in a good mood. On the platform, Palmer shared a new profile picture that shows him smiling with a full beard, sunglasses and a hat. He captioned the photo: “Good time”. Just a few hours after publication, more than 1000 people had already marked the post with “Like”.
Palmer commented on the details of his break for the first time yesterday: “I drew strength, had many good conversations and used the time to think,” said Palmer, according to a statement from the city. He did not want to give any further details. “One result is also the conviction that it would not be helpful to discuss this in detail in public,” said Palmer. The only important thing is that his time off bears fruit. “And that will be best seen in the future results of the joint work in Tübingen City Hall.”
Palmer: “Working through share of destructive entanglements”
Before the start of the break, he had declared that he saw the month as a task – and referred to a personal statement that he published in early May after the scandal. In it, Palmer wrote that during the hiatus he would “try to work through my part in these increasingly destructive entanglements.”
Since he will continue to be exposed to attacks like those in Frankfurt am Main, there is nothing left but to try to change himself. “Unless I am confident in mastering new mechanisms of self-control that will protect me from recurrence, I will avoid all confrontations with apparent potential for escalation through abstinence,” Palmer continued.
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