It was almost midnight when Wiesbaden city councilors ended their meeting last week and said goodbye for the summer break.

Despite a mammoth meeting, not all items on the agenda were dealt with, but that was not to be expected due to the lengthy debates on transport issues.

One point, however, was not even up for debate: the deselection of full-time department heads.

No motion for dismissal and re-election has been made, and if a special summer meeting is not called - which is currently considered unlikely - nothing will change until the deadline.

Oliver Bock

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis and for Wiesbaden.

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In contrast to Frankfurt, the Wiesbaden city council is apparently willing to start with the full-time magistrate team from the previous electoral term in autumn - apart from the position of city development officer, which has been orphaned since the surprising death of Hans-Martin Kessler (CDU).

In the foreseeable future, this will have to be filled again, because the mayor will hardly be able to cope with the task that has been partially taken on in the long term.

However, it is not currently clear with which majority and by whom the position will be filled.

No reliable majority formation in sight

A reliable majority formation, cooperation or even a coalition is currently not in sight.

Because since April there has been no movement in the muddled political constellation.

An alliance that could replace the cooperation formed in February 2017 between the SPD, CDU and the Greens currently lacks partners.

Rather, there is still a stalemate: the CDU and FDP have so far only wanted to govern together and preferably with the SPD, and if necessary with the Greens.

However, they promised themselves that they would not respond.

They preferred to form a majority with the FDP.

But the FDP decided not to enter into a traffic light coalition with the Greens and the SPD.

An SPD sub-district advisory council in turn decided that the desired constellation is the “traffic light” or a binding Kenya coalition.

Mayor Gert-Uwe Mende (SPD) is also promoting this, for whom the also possible Jamaica variant with the exclusion of the SPD would understandably be anathema.

With a view to the upcoming budget deliberations in autumn, Mende would like a reliable majority.

Good advice is expensive

The CDU, on the other hand, does not want “Kenya” because this alliance does not represent the new beginning that party leader Ingmar Jung has proclaimed. The new CDU parliamentary group leader Daniela Georgi only praised the trusting cooperation with the FDP in a circular a few days ago and accused the SPD of not giving a clear answer to the offer of coalition talks. The SPD and the Greens refused and preferred to cooperate with the Left Party and Volt. "Building trust and making a serious effort to find a solution to the deadlocked situation certainly looks different." The Greens, who were strengthened in the election, would most likely see their program in a traffic light or a new edition of the Kenya coalition. This means that good advice is expensive in the state capital.