When it comes to choosing a successor for Munich’s second mayor, Katrin Haben Schaden from the Greens, there will probably be a fight vote. The city council faction of the ÖDP and Munich List announced on Friday that it would propose its spokesman Tobias Ruff for the office. The day before, the Green and Pink Lists had agreed on their parliamentary group spokesman Dominik Krause as a candidate for the post that Haben Schaden will soon vacate.
The 46-year-old surprisingly announced on Wednesday that she was withdrawing from politics and moving into business, to Deutsche Bahn in Berlin. She will officially resign her mandates as mayor and city councilor at the body’s general meeting on October 25th. It is not yet clear when a new second mayor will be elected.
ÖDP and Munich List explained Ruff’s candidacy as “ensuring a committed and convinced voice for an ecological and climate-friendly Munich and making a contribution to unity in the city council.” The 47-year-old aquatic ecologist has been committed to improving the quality of life in his hometown for years; “Unlike others,” he is “not a politician with ulterior motives” and “does not want to use the mayor’s office as a career springboard.”
You can see this as a criticism of the Green Party leader Krause. Ruff and his party have long been annoyed that the Greens, together with the CSU opposition, have adopted the citizens’ initiative “preserve green spaces” pushed by the ÖDP for the city council, but have so far prevented almost all measures.
Ruff does not have a realistic chance of becoming mayor as long as the government coalition of the Greens/Pink List and SPD/Volt votes for Krause. He will hardly receive any votes from the opposition parties, but neither will Ruff. Its stance on affordable housing is “not compatible with our ideas,” says Stefan Jagel, spokesman for the Left/The Party. Jörg Hoffmann from the FDP/Bavarian Party believes that Ruff’s maneuver should not be taken seriously: “I would classify it as satire.”