Dhe Mayor of Tübingen, Boris Palmer, clearly won the mayoral election with 52.4 percent, well ahead of his challengers from the SPD and his former party, the Greens. Palmer had run as a non-partisan candidate after a party expulsion process for allegedly racist statements had ended with a settlement.
The current result can be interpreted as a clear defeat for his inner-party opponents: The candidate Ulrike Baumgärtner, who was chosen by the green city association in a primary election, received only 22 percent. The aim of the Greens, who supported the party exclusion procedure and who had wanted a more left-wing mayor for Tübingen, was to force Palmer into another ballot after this election, which in Baden-Württemberg is always a new election in which new candidates can also stand .
Very high voter turnout
This goal of the green city association failed, as did that of being well ahead of the SPD: the SPD candidate Sofie Geisel got 21.4 percent. The turnout was sensationally high: in mayor elections in the south-west it is usually 44 percent on average, in this election in Tübingen it was 62.6 percent.
In his second re-election in October 2014, Palmer won the election with 61.7 percent against a weak challenger from the CDU; The CDU had not put forward any candidates for this election, nor had it made any recommendation. However, some prominent CDU members in Tübingen, for example the head of the university hospital, campaigned “as private individuals” for the incumbent.
At 7.20 p.m., the citizens welcomed the new and future mayor with loud cheers of “Boris, Boris, Boris”, and occasional boos could also be heard. When Palmer and his wife made a first statement in front of City Hall, he addressed the first sentences to his opponents in the electorate: “I heard the boos. It’s 40 percent who didn’t vote for me,” Palmer said.
He recalled a sentence by the sociologist Niklas Luhmann, who spoke of “legitimacy through procedures”. This means that the result of an election is known after the ballot and the dispute is thus settled. “This also means that nobody storms the Capitol and says there is no result.” The high turnout in Tübingen shows, Palmer said, that democracy is about dispute and that asymmetrical demobilization only puts people to sleep.
Palmer said that a few minutes ago he was on the phone with the Vice Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Robert Habeck, and the Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg Winfried Kretschmann (both Greens), that he intends to stand up for his party again, that he is an ecologist and ecology is that unifying band of his party.
Palmer was alluding to the comparison he made with the Baden-Württemberg state association to settle the party exclusion process. After that, he should let his party membership rest until 2023. It is still unclear whether this will be deviated from. The member of parliament Daniel Lede Abal – as a party leftist he belongs to Palmer’s inner-party opponents – told the FAZ: “Majority is majority. But the reasons for the party exclusion procedure are not over with the election. We have to have a lot of talks now.”
Chris Kühn, Secretary of State for Economic Affairs in Berlin and member of the Bundestag in Tübingen, made a similar statement: “We have to overcome the friend-enemy mentality and have talks with Boris this year.” It is initially more important to talk about all political issues in the city than over the questions of when Palmer could rejoin the party.
The social democrat Sofie Geisel said of her defeat: “Tübingen is deeply rooted in Boris Palmer, so two women can’t compete.” Ulrike Baumgärtner said she was now the best-known mayor in Germany. “We made the city an offer that became politicized. Now the mayor needs to bring the city together and put some of our points into action.”