Green politicians
Boris Palmer is running as an independent candidate at the Mayor’s election in Tübingen
Boris Palmer wants to remain mayor of Tübingen
© Ulmer Press Photo Agency / Picture Alliance
His statements are controversial – not only within the Greens. Now Boris Palmer wants to campaign against his party. He would like to remain mayor of Tübingen and run as an independent candidate.
Tübingen’s long-time mayor Boris Palmer (Greens) wants to run as a non-party candidate in the mayoral election in the fall. He announced this on his website on Sunday. Palmer wrote on borispalmer.de that more than 800 eligible voters had signed an appeal to support him running for office again. A similarly large number of people provided this support with a monetary donation.
The necessary budget for an election campaign came together in just one week. “I can’t thank you enough for your encouragement. You made the difference: I will run for a third term.”
Boris Palmer: “My political home is and will remain the Greens in Baden-Württemberg”
Palmer stressed that it was difficult for him to run without the support of the party, which he has belonged to for 25 years. “My political home is and will remain the Greens in Baden-Württemberg,” he wrote. He wants to contribute to their success and that of Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann’s (Greens) government. “But in this election, I’m denied that for well-known reasons.” Palmer emphasized that mayoral elections are traditionally personal elections. Parties are not up for election.
Palmer recently announced that he no longer wanted to run as a Green Party candidate in his city’s mayoral election in the fall – because of his possible expulsion from the party. At the beginning of May, a state party conference decided to initiate party order proceedings against Palmer, who was controversial because of his provocations.
The 49-year-old Palmer has been mayor of the university town since 2007. In search of support for his possible election campaign as a non-party candidate, Palmer had collected 100,000 euros in the past few days.