Michael Adam was a political star until he resigned due to a sex scandal. Now he has been elected mayor by people who are also voting for the AfD. About his time outside of politics, what he wants to do differently in the future and how he thinks about the shift to the right in Bavaria.
Young, red, openly gay, Protestant – and of all places in extremely conservative and cross-Catholic Lower Bavaria: Michael Adam, now 38 years old, quickly provided enough material for snappy headlines right at the beginning of his career. And then this guy was also a huge political talent: first they elected him as one of the youngest mayors in Germany (Bodenmais in the Bavarian Forest) and then as district administrator of Regen. A red for a deep black district. Why? Because he was always the honest, approachable, personal Michael Adam. People liked that. But he quickly learned the other side of this coin. When it came out that he sometimes received lovers in his office in the district office, the tide changed – and Adam gave up his political career.