Frankfurt station district: dispute about the right way out of the drug misery

The question of how conditions in the station district can be improved will continue to be debated next year.

Both an application submitted by the CDU at the beginning of November and two applications submitted by the coalition of Greens, SPD, FDP and Volt shortly before the meeting on Thursday have been postponed to the next round of meetings.

Like the Union, the smaller fractions had also criticized the Alliance's approach because they had not been able to deal with the proposals.

In the first application of the four-party alliance, the magistrate is asked to present a catalog of measures for a “living together with fewer conflicts” in the station district.

He should report on what he is doing to prevent the impoverishment of drug users and the homeless, to fight crime and improve security, for more cleanliness and better hygienic conditions, and for a public space that does justice to everyone, i.e. the people who work in the district, the residents , the cultural scene and the tourists.

Look away or surrender

In the debate, which was initially characterized by mutual accusations, Martin-Benedikt Schäfer (CDU) reproached the four-party alliance for not making any concrete proposals.

"The applications are intended to conceal the fact that you have not been concerned with the subject for months." Instead of concrete solutions, reports from the magistrate are required.

In return, the FDP parliamentary group leader Yanki Pürsün listed inquiries and motions from the liberals on the subject from the time of majorities with the Union.

The CDU application states that the city must not capitulate to the problems in the station district.

"The CDU has done that in recent years," said Pürsün.

"And we're ending that now."

From the point of view of Anna Pause (SPD), the CDU's proposals, according to which drug addicts should be taken off the streets to support facilities, do not take the principle of prevention before repression too short.

After decades of inactivity, all suffering should now be hidden in prisons and backyards.

"Some just don't accept the help," said Beatrix Baumann (The Greens) about the challenge of dealing with drug addicts.

As an important point in the coalition's motion, she named the need to deal intensively with the drug crack.

For Britta Wollkopf (Volt), the applications differ primarily in that the coalition does not want to bring drug use and the homeless into the facilities.

In its catalog of demands, the Union had based its list of demands on the model of the city of Zurich, which pushed the open drug scene out of the street scene, but at the same time made offers of help to addicts.

To ensure that they also accept them, trading in small quantities is tolerated in the facilities.

According to the current legal situation, this should not be allowed at all, argued the SPD parliamentary group leader Ursula Busch.

At the beginning of its own application, the four-party alliance put the "strengthening of proactive offers for drug reduction and drug freedom as well as help for leaving the scene".

However, there should also be day rest rooms as well as printing and smoking areas in the drug consumption rooms.

The networking of the social welfare agencies is to be improved, as is the coordination between the drug department, the police, the public order office, the public prosecutor's office, the prevention council, the social and health departments and the independent drug welfare agencies.

Eastside support

The coalition goes on to say that, like drug policy, the contribution of the state police must be “critically questioned, but also constructively supported”.

"More presence of the state police is required".

Frankfurt should strive for a federal model project with which different treatment approaches when dealing with crack could be tested.

In a second motion, the coalition is calling for the Eastside drug treatment facility to be allowed to build a care facility for severely addicted older drug addicts at its current location.

Verena David (CDU) called that a good suggestion, and the others could also be checked.