Munich is to get a new municipal representative: The green-red city hall coalition agreed on Monday afternoon after a long struggle to elect the non-party Jacqueline Charlier as the successor to Kristina Frank (CSU), whose six-year term of office ends on July 31st. This was confirmed by the Green/Pink List and SPD/Volt factions of the SZ. “Jacqueline Charlier has many years of administrative experience and deep, professional expertise that she could profitably bring to the local government department. We would be happy to work together,” said Mona Fuchs, the Green Party’s parliamentary group spokeswoman. Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) had already confirmed to the SZ in the middle of last week that he would support the personnel. The election is scheduled to take place this Wednesday at the next full meeting of the city council.
The position of a speaker corresponds to that of a city minister. The municipal department is responsible for the municipal real estate portfolio, the market halls (including the fixed markets such as the Viktualienmarkt), the waste management company (AWM) as well as the municipal forestry company and the municipal goods. In the future, the head of the authority would no longer be party-political: the lawyer Charlier, 50, previously deputy head of the planning department, does not have a party register. Kristina Frank, 43, also a lawyer, is deputy head of the Munich CSU and also its last mayoral candidate; it had been installed by the old SPD/CSU coalition.
The agreement was preceded by weeks of struggle between the SPD and the Greens. The head of the SPD/Volt faction in the city council definitely did not want to re-elect the CSU politician Frank. If you can fill the head of a department with a highly qualified person like Charlier, regardless of party, you should do so, so the argument goes.
Parts of the Greens/Pink List, on the other hand, could have imagined that Frank would be re-elected as a local representative. She enjoys universal respect for her administration. “We as the Green/Pink List faction give her great credit for the fact that she worked across all party lines,” said Fuchs, praising the “always trusting cooperation.”
Frank will receive broad support from the city council opposition: In addition to the CSU/Free Voters, the FDP/Bavarian Party and even the Left/The Party also want to vote for her on Wednesday. “With Kristina Frank, by far the most competent candidate is being sacrificed on the altar of a divided, fragile coalition,” criticized CSU parliamentary group leader Manuel Pretzl; In particular, he accused the SPD of making a “purely power-political backroom decision.”
According to reports, the agreement was reached quickly on Monday. The mayors Dominik Krause (Greens) and Verena Dietl (SPD) are said to have agreed last week to end the internal quarrels as quietly as possible. The parliamentary group leaders had already signed an agreement on Monday last week in which Charlier was declared the joint candidate and further personal details were determined. But for the Greens, indirect approval from the mayor’s office for this deal was not enough; they demanded a personal commitment from Reiter. However, that didn’t happen.
The coalition members are said to have relieved pressure by playing table tennis
Another week of nerve-racking for the candidates Charlier and Frank followed; internal relations in the coalition were tense. Pressure is said to have been relieved by playing table tennis together, the new Munich form of ping-pong diplomacy. According to SZ information, it was negotiated that all three top positions in the city administration that were still up for replacement would be filled in the fall, so that shortly before the end of the term of office, no coalition partner could trip up the other.
The new heads of the planning department, the labor and economic department and the cultural department are to be elected at the general assembly in October. There are party political stipulations for two in the green-red coalition agreement: the SPD has the right to make proposals for the economic department, which is currently headed by Clemens Baumgärtner (CSU). It is not yet known who she will choose. The Greens can propose someone for the cultural department, which is headed by the independent Anton Biebl. It is a given that city councilor Florian Roth will take over this position.
In addition, the agreement should state that the deputy in the municipal department, which will probably also be newly appointed, will be appointed in a party-politically neutral manner. The same applies to the municipal housing company Münchner Wohnen, whose leadership is also still open.
The independent Elisabeth Merk is seeking re-election in the planning department. It is considered undisputed. Merk and her previous deputy have a relatively clear division to the outside world: the architect Merk explains the department’s position on technical issues, such as urban development or monument protection. Charlier talks about building law issues that arise in city council meetings; for example, why progress in housing construction is not happening as quickly as some citizens and politicians would like. Charlier can represent her positions quite pointedly.
There is a lot of overlap between the planning department and the municipal department, as the municipal department is responsible for managing the city’s real estate portfolio, including the purchase of new properties. The decision on this often depends largely on aspects of building law. The non-party Charlier has – as is the task of the administration – implemented political projects, previously from the SPD/CSU coalition, currently from the green-red alliance. This includes, for example, the new regulation on socially fair land use, or Sobon for short, i.e. the social requirements for private housing projects. The city tightened this significantly in 2021 – and thus broke new ground nationwide. This is also why the Greens hesitated to give their approval; for a long time they saw it as being too close to the SPD.