The Roman coalition hopes that Peter Feldmann (SPD) will voluntarily withdraw on the day after city councilors have initiated the process of voting out Frankfurt's mayor.

According to the Hessian Municipal Code, this can be done within a week for the mayor without major financial losses.

If that doesn't happen, Frankfurt voters will make a decision on November 6th.

Bernhard Biener

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung

  • Follow I follow

Mechthild Harting

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

  • Follow I follow

However, the coalition does not have too high hopes.

Feldmann's statement, which was distributed on Thursday evening, does not contain a clear statement that he will not accept the deselection.

But he already offers the factions a "fairness pact" for the upcoming conflict.

This clearly shows that the Lord Mayor is preparing for a fight against the necessary deselection by the citizens.

Which Feldmann considers “expensive and unnecessary”.

In the statement, almost defiantly, he points out that he has offered the factions his voluntary withdrawal for the end of January.

The deselection procedure that has now been decided is “expensive and unnecessary”.

For SPD faction leader Ursula Busch, this is primarily an “emotional reaction”.

The mayor is clearly upset.

The social democrat, who has known Feldmann for decades from political work, hopes that this will not be his last reaction and that he will still accept the seven-day option to resign.

Green Party leader Tina Zapf-Rodriguez says her group would like Feldmann to take this opportunity to resign "for himself, for the city and for all of us".

This saves everyone the four-month deselection process.

Personally, however, she has doubts that Feldmann will go this route.

And the FDP parliamentary group leader, Yanki Pürsün, also lacks the imagination for what could change the mayor's mind.

Hidden messages from Feldmann

In a joint statement on Friday, the coalition, which includes the Greens, SPD and FDP as well as the fourth partner Volt, hits the ball back: it's not the deselection process that's expensive and unnecessary, it's Feldmann's refusal.

With the "Fairness Pact" he is demanding behavior that he himself has been missing for weeks and months.

"His unfair behavior has meant that a large majority of the city council and large parts of the population can no longer trust his word." Feldmann could not explain why he would like to stay in office for another month instead of accepting the deselection now.

The same applies to the question of why he did not want to agree to any of the compromise solutions offered.

Feldmann's accusation that the factions had chosen the path of confrontation is also viewed differently:

Instead of looking for hidden messages in the mayor's letter, only the laconic statement of the CDU parliamentary group leader Nils Kößler remains: "After seven days we will know whether Peter Feldmann is forcing the referendum on the city."