Status: 07/28/2021 3:11 p.m.
You are the backbone of democracy, you are close to people. But local politicians are repeatedly victims of hatred or attacks. That ARD-Project “Time for Local Heroes” accompanies politicians all over Germany.
The Duisburg city councilor Mirze Edis sits in his office and opens his Facebook messages. “Fuck off where he came from, you have no business here,” he reads. Edis doesn’t know the sender, probably a fake account. The local politician receives such news again and again.
The City Council for the Left has been campaigning for years against racism and for its migrant neighborhood Duisburg Hochfeld. Left-wing politician Edis also wants to win back the high fields with migrant roots for politics. Not everyone likes it. In 2010 he was attacked and seriously injured and spent three days in intensive care.
Cross-media series about local politics
Reporters from rbb and BR Mayors and local politicians all over Germany. The cross-media documentary project is a series in the ARD-Media library retrievable and will be in ARD lunch magazine broadcast. There is also the Instagram channel Zeit.fuer.LOCAL.HEROES and a podcast series from radioeins and Bayern 2. As part of the city theme week. Country. Change. In November, the first will also broadcast a TV documentary.
Attacks are becoming more frequent
Local politicians are repeatedly the target of attacks. This affects those who are particularly close to their voters. They take care of their concerns directly, but also quickly become the target of political frustration. According to a survey by the ARDPolitical magazine report Munich Last year, 72 percent of the local politicians surveyed said they had been insulted, verbally abused or even attacked. That is eight percentage points more than in the previous year.
Local politician Edis is actually a works council in a steel mill. A 13-hour day lies ahead of him. Then someone from Duisburg calls and urgently needs an appointment with the immigration authorities. Edis also takes care of it – on a voluntary basis.
His district of Duisburg Hochfeld has been making negative headlines for years. He wants to change that. Because if he, as a city council, does not take care of it, hardly anyone does that.
Life-threatening attack – but left-wing politician Edis wants to continue to get involved.
Image: rbb
Edis knows: Many people in Hochfeld don’t believe that politicians like him can change anything in their situation. The turnout in the last local elections was just 5.6 percent. Nevertheless, he always tries to get into conversation with the citizens. A man tells him that Duisburg Hochfeld is changing for the worse, that he has not trusted politicians for a long time.
Underrated as a woman
Hostility and insults in local politics are almost the order of the day – women, on the other hand, are still not. Nationwide, men in municipal offices are clearly in the majority. Not even every tenth town hall is ruled by a woman. One of these few is now Sibylle Keupen. For almost a year she has been Aachen’s first woman mayor – for the Greens.
The election campaign was not easy for her. Your competitor, as is so often the case in the election campaign: a candidate from the CDU. “I think he had imagined it to be easier. People underestimated me at the beginning and made me small. Not because ‘it comes from outside. What we do here, nobody can anyway.’ I pretty much overwhelmed them with my energy, but of course we take it sporty, “said Keupen.
First woman in office – the Aachen mayor Sibylle Keupen believes that she was underestimated during the election campaign.
Image: rbb
In rural areas in particular, mayors and local politicians are not only often male, but also quite old. In Horneburg in Lower Saxony, Mate Sieber still wants to become mayor – at the age of 22. “It’s gone,” he says, pointing to a lamp post. “The poster. What was hanging there on the lantern, there was also one.” Now only the remains of his adhesive tape are hanging there.
Apparently not everyone in Horneburg likes that they are running. Sieber is running for the FDP, but Horneburg has been voting for the CDU for 20 years. His chances are not particularly good.
Unattractive as a career aspiration
According to the Federal Agency for Political Education, younger party members between the ages of 16 and 30 are clearly underrepresented in all major parties. In the CDU it is just six percent, the FDP is in the middle with 17 percent.
When Sieber starts campaigning, Horneburg’s local elections are still four months away. But even at this point in time, he wants to start talking to citizens. He wants to make himself known to the older horneburgers in particular, speaks to an older gentleman. “Don’t cause any trouble, just don’t become mayor,” he says.
Difficult street election campaign – Mate Sieber hopes to be able to convince people despite his still quite young age.
Image: rbb
Hostility and hatred on the net
Many citizens do not know it any other way. According to the European Academy for Women in Politics and Business, more than half of the mayors are over 45 years old and 30 percent are over 60 years old. And the often voluntary tasks of local politicians are not becoming more attractive, especially for young people. Too big the hurdle to be taken seriously, too difficult the burden of hostility and hatred on the internet.
FDP candidate Sieber wants to try anyway. “It is ultimately the duty of each of us to fight for a good society and also to show that extremes have no chance and the middle is strong. That is my wish, and that’s why I also do politics.” And he is probably not alone among local politicians and mayors.
Midday magazine series “Local Heroes”: reporters accompany local politicians
S.Delfs / S.Stoye / M.Trocoli Castro / L.Struckmeier, daily topics 11:15 p.m., July 25, 2021