Scandal series on the Main
City parliament votes out Frankfurt’s mayor – but he doesn’t think about quitting
Frankfurt’s mayor Peter Feldmann (SPD) on Thursday in the city council
© Frank Rumpenhorst / DPA
Missteps and allegations of corruption – for the Frankfurt City Council, the measure is full. She calls on Mayor Peter Feldmann (SPD) to resign. But he has completely different plans – and will soon be in court.
The vote was clear, very clear. On Thursday, 67 members of the city parliament voted to vote Frankfurt’s Lord Mayor Peter Feldmann out of office. The required two-thirds majority was thus achieved. Among other things, the coalition of Greens, SPD, FDP and Volt as well as the citizens of Frankfurt and the CDU and AfD parliamentary group voted for the SPD politician to be voted out, a spokeswoman for the city council said star. The fate of the 63-year-old at the top of the city seems sealed.
But despite the vote, Feldmann is not thinking about quitting at all. He wants to continue for several more months. Immediately after the roll-call vote in the city council, Feldmann had a statement distributed, according to the DPA news agency, and made it clear that he did not intend to retire from office until next January. “They accept that local politics will be paralyzed for months for a few weeks shorter term of office,” said Feldmann. In fact, the mayor doesn’t just want to stay in office “a few weeks” longer, but around half a year. Officially, Feldmann has to decide by midnight on July 21 whether he accepts being voted out by the city council.
Peter Feldmann made headlines nationwide
If he stuck to his no, the farce (or the scandal) about the mayor of the Main metropolis would go into the next round. Because Feldmann’s refusal to vacate his post now means, according to the Hessian municipal code, that the people of Frankfurt have to vote on the future of their mayor. The date for this is November 6th. The prerequisite for voting out is that the majority of the valid votes are in favor of voting out, but at least 30 percent of the more than 500,000 eligible voters. That this quorum will be met is anything but certain. In the local elections last year, turnout was only 45.1 percent.
Peter Feldmann has been mayor of Frankfurt since 2012 and was re-elected in 2018. Recently, however, the politician’s missteps have increased. The mayor’s appearances in connection with Eintracht Frankfurt’s win in the Europa League made headlines nationwide. Shortly before the presentation of the trophy on the Römer’s balcony by the trainer and team, Feldmann took the trophy from the athletes’ hands and walked through the hall of the town hall with it. He also made a name for himself with a sexist statement on the flight to the final venue in Seville about the flight attendants: They would have “hormonally put him out of action,” said Feldmann at the time over the aircraft’s on-board microphone. Eintracht Frankfurt’s board spokesman, Axel Hellmann, then said that the mayor was no longer welcome in the Waldstadion. Feldmann publicly regretted his missteps and apologized.
Charges against the mayor of Frankfurt
However, allegations of corruption against Feldmann are likely to weigh more heavily than the tactlessness: In March, the public prosecutor’s office brought charges on suspicion of accepting an advantage (the star reported). It’s about Feldmann’s close ties to Arbeiterwohlfahrt (Awo). Feldmann’s wife is said to have received a salary in excess of the collective agreement as the head of an Awo day-care center “without any objective reason”. According to the public prosecutor’s office, Awo also supported Feldmann in the 2018 election campaign by raising donations. In return, he wanted to “benevolently consider” the interests of Awo Frankfurt. Feldmann rejects the allegations and emphasized several times: “I’m not corrupt.”
From October, a court will deal with the allegations.
Sources: City of Frankfurt, City Council, Peter Feldman on Facebook, Hessian municipal codeDPA news agency