The district parliament of Upper Bavaria will also be re-elected next year with the state parliament – and Ilse Weiß from Neuried will no longer be a candidate for the CSU after 15 years. Instead, the mayor of Oberhaching and chairman of the CSU district parliamentary group, Stefan Schelle, was nominated as a candidate for the Munich-Land Süd constituency. The SZ spoke to Weiß, who was mayor of Neuried from 2002 to 2014.
SZ: Ms. Weiß, why don’t you want to run for the district council anymore?
Ilse Weiß: I celebrated my 70th birthday this year, at that age you can stop for a bit. That is the only reason. I’ve communicated for a long time that I’m no longer up for election, so that wasn’t a surprise. Stefan Schelle has been mayor of Oberhaching for 20 years, he is very familiar with local politics, nominating him is a very good decision.
Is this the beginning of your complete retirement from politics?
I wouldn’t say it like that. I’m still a district councilor and will definitely do so until the next election in 2026, as long as my health cooperates, of course. We shall see what happens then.
After 15 years in the district council, it is time for a personal assessment. What was the greatest achievement during this time?
The psychiatric crisis service immediately springs to mind. Step by step, the district council from Upper Bavaria has succeeded in establishing this telephone emergency service for mental health problems around the clock throughout Bavaria. That’s a great thing. When it comes to such decisions, we form large majorities in the district assembly. The district council is about the thing, I appreciate that.
What was the attraction for you to make decisions in this body?
The social orientation of the district council meets my interests exactly, I am a professionally trained social worker. The social focus of the board was the reason I once threw my hat in the ring for the county council seat. We have a huge budget of over two billion euros, most of which is spent in the social budget, including for social institutions and projects, for example for people with disabilities. The money could be used, for example, to set up care bases in every district, where citizens can find advice on care issues quickly and easily.
What are you going to do with the time you’ve saved?
Well, I don’t have that much more time due to my retirement, I still have a few offices: as a district councillor, as district and district chairwoman of the Senior Citizens’ Union Munich-Land and as a member of the state executive board of the SU. In Neuried, I am also the chairman of the church music development association. I certainly won’t get bored! When you’ve been in politics for so many years, you have a lot of contacts and are networked, and there are still tasks waiting for you.