Lord Mayor Election
Palmer runs in Tübingenin as an independent candidate
Tübingen’s Mayor Boris Palmer (Greens) wants to run as an independent candidate in the next mayoral election. Photo: Tom Weller/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
A Green who wants to campaign against his own party: Boris Palmer wants 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 that encouragement. You made the difference: I will apply for a third term. »
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 the government of Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens). “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. The 49-year-old 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.