What's next?

Mechthild Harting

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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    The next step is the election of the six new department heads, on which the coalition, the so-called V-traffic light, has agreed.

    For the new election of the city councils, the previous CDU department head and the SPD transport department head Klaus Oesterling must first be recalled, who is to leave the department to the Greens one year before the official end of his term of office.

    How can full-time city councilors be voted out of office?

    Heads of department are elected by the city parliament for six years. In principle, they can only be voted out with a two-thirds majority. This is what the Hessian municipal code prescribes. However, it provides for an exception for the period after a local election or at the beginning of a new election period, as the election period of the city parliament only lasts five years: then department heads can be voted out of office within six months with an absolute majority. This happens again and again, most recently after the local elections in 2016, when the then new three-party coalition of CDU, SPD and Greens voted out the two Green City Councilors Olaf Cunitz and Sarah Sorge. In any case, the voting must be voted twice in the city parliament. The second deselection may take place no earlier than four weeks after the first.

    Is it now going to be a shortage of voting out of the city councils?

    No.

    After the new coalition has been finalized with the approval of all four parties to the declaration and agreement, the V-traffic light plans to vote for the first time at the earliest possible date, that is the city council meeting on July 15.

    The second vote must follow by the end of September, then the six-month period ends.

    The ideal would be the regular session of the city parliament on September 23rd - three days before the federal election.

    The new city councilors could also be elected at this meeting.

    Who should be voted out?

    In addition to the SPD transport department head Klaus Oesterling, these are the three CDU politicians: Mayor Uwe Becker, social department head Daniela Birkenfeld and building department head Jan Schneider.

    The term of office of CDU city councilor Markus Frank ended normally at the beginning of May.

    However, he continues the official business until the election of new city councilors.

    14 voluntary city councilors belong to the city government.

    When do they come?

    They, too, are expected to be elected in the September session after the summer vacation, by proportional representation.

    The parliamentary groups make election proposals.

    Sometimes they also agree on a common list.

    What the result will look like cannot be said at the moment - actually not before the secret election.

    When will the city council begin to work in the ten specialist committees?

    So far, only the main and finance committee and the committee of elders have started work.

    This is where the meetings of the city parliament are prepared.

    The coalition wants to apply for the establishment of the other technical committees before the summer break.

    They would be constituted after the holidays in the period up to 23 September.

    According to current plans, the new city government would be fully operational by the end of September.

    Why is this taking so long?

    The election was on March 14th.

    Since 1999 the five percent clause for the election of the city parliament no longer just moved three or four parties into the Römer. After the election in March there were 16. Some have formed parliamentary groups, so that ten parliamentary groups and three individual city councilors are now represented in the Römer. In the opinion of experts, it is only natural that the formation of a coalition takes correspondingly longer. After all, the new coalition is only the second four alliance in the history of the city of Frankfurt - the first ruled from 2001 to 2006.