The Free Voter politician Ulrike Müller holds a dual mandate until the end of June 2024. The 60-year-old farmer from the Oberallgäu district has now explained this. In addition to her state parliament mandate, which she won with the second vote for her party in the state elections on October 8th, she will exercise her mandate in the European Parliament until the end of the electoral period on June 30th, 2024. “I would like to finish my work in Europe properly,” said Müller in explanation. “That’s also why I was elected to Europe.” She also emphasized that “groundbreaking decisions in the interests of farmers are still pending” in the European Parliament. Müller is an agricultural politician and ran in the state elections in the Lindau-Sonthofen district.
At the same time, Müller explained that she will only receive one MP salary until the end of June 2024, namely that for her European mandate. “For me, this financial transparency is essential in order to maintain the trust of our citizens in the integrity of our political processes,” says Müller. But Müller would have no other choice. The Bavarian Parliament Act stipulates in Article 22, paragraph five that a member of the state parliament does not receive a member’s diet from the state parliament in such a case. The same applies to members of the state parliament who are also members of the Bundestag. According to Müller, the state parliament office and the administrative office in the European Parliament have already confirmed that she has the legitimacy for the dual mandate.
Müller began her political career as a local politician in her home community of Missen-Wilhams, where she runs a farm with her husband. From 1996 she was a local councilor and later second mayor for six years. In 2008 she ran for the state parliament for the first time as a Free Voters candidate and entered the Maximilianeum via the list. From the very beginning she made a name for herself as an agricultural politician. In 2014 she moved to European politics and the Strasbourg parliament for her party. There she joined the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. Their focus remained agricultural policy. In the state election on October 8th, Müller won 18.2 percent of the total votes for the Free Voters in the Lindau-Sonthofen constituency. The direct mandate went to her competitor from the CSU, Eric Beißwenger, who was appointed European Minister in Prime Minister Markus Söder’s new cabinet.