The SPD has collapsed the red-green coalition in the Hanover City Council. Mayor Onay (Greens) is surprised. He still wants to continue pursuing the mobility transition for the city center.
In a letter on Monday, he learned from the SPD that they wanted to end the coalition with the Greens in the city council, Hanover’s mayor (OB) Belit Onay said at a press conference in the afternoon. From his point of view, this happened “surprisingly and without necessity”. “We worked well together on many issues,” said Onay. Only recently have there been differences over the mobility concept for the city center of Hanover. According to Onay, both sides were able to get many of them out of the way recently. The last remaining chunks were formal questions and finances.
Onay doesn’t see any insurmountable Differences
“The step doesn’t make sense to me,” said Onay about the SPD’s termination of the red-green alliance. The discussions last week were targeted, serious and oriented towards the matter. “They were good conversations.” He could not explain how the SPD came to this decision. The termination of the alliance is not good news for the city, especially not in these turbulent times marked by multiple crises. However, Onay explained: “Momenting is not an option, we will continue to work on the issues and advance them, we are firmly determined to do so.”
OB stops Mobility transition for Hanover’s city center
According to Onay, the mobility transition for the city center will not be buried. “We need an answer for mobility,” which is something that is always reflected back to him, said the Mayor. A vision of the future is needed for Hanover. The vision for the city center is a combination of a wide variety of ideas and concepts, especially red and green. In this respect, a lot is being implemented – including in individual projects that are already capable of reaching a consensus. According to Onay, these will be further processed and advanced in the coming weeks. The administration is still able to act.
Discussions planned before the next council meeting on Thursday
Onay appealed to all “democratic forces in the city council” to ensure the council’s ability to act and make decisions as quickly as possible. In the run-up to the council meeting on Thursday, Onay said he would invite the leaders of the parliamentary groups to talks in order to be able to discuss and clarify further action and further cooperation. There are many important issues to be resolved. Onay particularly includes the area of climate protection, the situation in society, social cohesion, the solidarity of the city community, more participation and more educational equality. “We have to see how we can tackle future issues now,” said Onay. “There must be no standstill or even regression.”
The Greens must campaign for majorities in the council
According to Onay, in the medium to long term the Greens will need to find majorities in the council for the various issues. From his point of view, there are major overlaps both when it comes to mobility and in many other socially relevant issues, which are also supported by the democratic factions. “The differences are nowhere near as big as they have sometimes been articulated,” said Onay, who took office in November 2019 as the first Green mayor of Hanover. He was confident that good solutions can be found in a timely manner “if you focus on the matter at hand.”
SPD criticizes Onays Mobility concept for Hanover’s city center
The SPD officially collapsed the red-green alliance at a press conference in Hanover at midday. The background is not just the mobility concept for the city center, said Daniel Cord, managing director of the SPD sub-district Hanover Region. The cooperation in the coalition did not work. Onay had sparked criticism with his plans to create an almost car-free city center by 2030.
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NDR 1 Lower Saxony | Regional Hanover | 12/01/2023 | 3:00 p.m