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Boris Palmer in Tübingen: “My approach is making the AfD shrink”
Photo: Markus Ulmer / IMAGO
While the far-right party in Baden-Württemberg recently got 16 percent in polls, the university city remains an AfD-free island. As has now been revealed, not even a list of candidates was drawn up for the local elections on June 9th. The mayor of Tübingen, Boris Palmer, also sees this as a success of his policies, which are populist and quite controversial. “My approach is shrinking the AfD,” the former Green now told SPIEGEL.
He was repeatedly accused of paving the way for the right-wingers and giving them a voice, says Palmer. But obviously that's not true. He specifically focuses on issues such as migration or security and thus deprives the AfD of the “resonance space”. A thesis that many in the Tübingen municipal council with its 40 members would contradict.
The eco-stronghold traditionally chooses green
One main reason for the weakness of the Blues in Tübingen can be found elsewhere: the city with around 90,000 residents has long been a green eco-stronghold. “The academic university environment is a bad place for the AfD,” says Palmer. A good income, a high level of education and the corresponding social structure are reflected in the election results. "Tübingen is traditionally one of a handful of municipalities with the lowest proportion of AfD votes in Baden-Württemberg in federal and state elections." A look at the statistics shows: In the 2021 state elections, the proportion of AfD votes was 3.4 percent , in 2016 it was 6.2 percent.
In the Baden-Württemberg local elections in 2024, Palmer wants to be on a list from the Free Voters Association (FWV) in the district council. The association has nothing to do with the Free Voters party. Palmer has been mayor of Tübingen since 2007. He has repeatedly been criticized for xenophobic statements. After another verbal outburst, the 51-year-old resigned from the Green Party almost a year ago.
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