The Free Voters lose one of their 14 district administrators in Bavaria. Peter von der Grün, district administrator in the Upper Bavarian district of Neuburg-Schrobenhausen, has announced that he is leaving the party – “with immediate effect”, as it was said in a letter that became public on Monday evening. The lawyer, who was elected district administrator in February 2019, would like to keep his position. “I am not considering early retirement,” he told the Neuburger Rundschau. The next district election is next year.
Behind the local politician’s departure from the party there are discord within the party. Above all, the relationship between Green and his influential predecessor Roland Weigert is shattered. Von der Grün accuses the ex-party friend of “power games for positions” and described Weigert as a “wrecking ball” in his letter. Among other things, he is said to have positioned free voters in the district council against the incumbent district administrator, who Green complained about a lack of support in his group.
Weigert was district administrator of Neuburg-Schrobenhausen for the Free Voters from 2008 to 2018, then he moved into the state parliament and is currently chairman of the interior committee. Even after moving into state politics, he played an active role in Neuburg district politics, sits on the district council and was until recently head of the FW district association. He commented on the attacks from the greens in the Neuburger Rundschau reserved, it serves as a lightning rod. “You have to endure that and that’s what I do.”
There has also recently been headwind for von der Grün outside of his own ranks: Last year, 18 municipal mayors criticized the district administrator’s style in an angry letter, for example in the distribution of money in the district budget. There is also a dispute about the future of the Schrobenhausen district hospital.