Municipalities
Steinmeier calls for better protection for local politicians
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier met with around 80 volunteer mayors in Berlin. photo
© Britta Pedersen/dpa
There are more than 6,000 volunteer mayors in Germany. Federal President Steinmeier praises them as “sources of strength for the municipalities”. And he has a few demands.
Democrats should not simply shrug their shoulders when mayors or local councilors no longer address certain sensitive issues, delete their social media accounts or even resign from office in order to protect themselves and their families.
Survey: Financial situation very challenging
In a Forsa survey presented at the same time by the Körber Foundation among 1,549 of the approximately 6,000 volunteer mayors in Germany, 40 percent said that they or people around them had already been insulted, threatened or attacked because of their mayoral activities. 28 percent have therefore already considered resigning from their position. According to the survey, they see the financial situation of their municipalities as one of the biggest challenges. 63 percent rated this as less good or bad, and 86 percent were worried about a lack of budget funds.
Steinmeier appealed to the federal and state governments not to deprive municipalities of all their creative freedom. They should not allow the municipalities to become a “mere enforcement apparatus”. “And they shouldn’t overburden the municipalities financially.” New tasks should only be transferred together with the necessary financial resources. “It must remain possible for cities and municipalities to regulate the affairs of the local community on their own responsibility.”
Problem area of balancing family and work
Steinmeier called for volunteering to be made more compatible with family and work. A lot of time and appointments in the evenings and on weekends are a problem for younger men and especially women who are in the middle of their working lives and have children.
Steinmeier’s wife Elke Büdenbender calculated that in Germany only 11.7 percent of mayors in large cities and only 19 percent of all honorary mayors are women. “That’s not enough; women are clearly underrepresented.” However, your view of things on site is important in order to properly take the needs of all people into account.
In the survey commissioned by the Körber Foundation, 62 percent of those surveyed rated the compatibility of their volunteer work with family, private life and work as less or not good at all. Only 37 percent saw them as good or very good. Around half (51 percent) of them said they invest at least 20 hours of work in the office in an average week. A quarter (26 percent) even put the time requirement at more than 30 hours a week.
The survey also found that many incumbents are worried about their successor. 71 percent of those surveyed saw a “young generation problem” facing their community. Only 22 percent were of the opinion that there were enough suitable people interested in the task. 33 percent of those surveyed said they would not run for office again – most cited age reasons.
Steinmeier said he was concerned that parties in some places were having difficulty finding enough candidates for local elections and that sometimes no one was willing to run for mayor. He called on municipalities to open themselves up to young, committed people. There are often young women and men who want to get involved – with new ideas, a new style and new people. However, some had the experience that they were viewed particularly critically and were not really given a chance because they did not correspond to the traditional image of a mayor.