The announcement by Frankfurt's head of mobility, Stefan Majer (Die Grünen), that the Mainkai would be closed to motorized traffic until the end of the 2026 election period, made the FDP sit up and take notice.

Because Majer and his designated successor Wolfgang Siefert (Die Grünen) had said in an interview with the FAZ that they would "take another close look at the large-scale traffic control" in preparation.

According to the taste of some in the FDP, that was obviously formulated in a misleading way.

FDP leader Thorsten Lieb therefore pointed out once again that the joint coalition agreement between the Greens, SPD, FDP and Volt provides that the closure be embedded in an overall traffic concept and "with special consideration" of the consequences for the city center and the old town as well as the northern Sachsenhausen will be realized.

Mechthild Harting

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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"The Free Democrats see a great opportunity in a new room layout on the Mainkai," Lieb said.

Nevertheless, the “gradual blocking should be considered a new attempt”.

In order to be able to better understand the effects on traffic and to identify sensible alternative traffic routes, "the open-ended scientific monitoring of the part-time closure was decided".

Lieb appealed to Majer and Siefert to "concentrate all energies on the coherent overall concept".

No overall concept can be developed without including the neighboring districts.

This must also be "tested for suitability in practice and the traffic effects evaluated objectively".

Only if the results are positive can a “permanent blocking be tackled”.

Is that the FDP's distancing itself from the car-free Mainkai?

One might assume that when one reads the criticism by former FDP party leader Franz Zimmermann, according to which, according to an unspecified survey, 63 percent of those questioned spoke out against the Mainkai being closed to car traffic.

In addition, according to Zimmermann, the statements made by Majer and Siefert in the FAZ interview were “just so full of half-truths”.

"The coalition agreement applies," says FDP parliamentary group leader Yanki Pürsün, and with it the joint agreement to want to block Mainkai for car traffic.

In two steps: First, as the coalition decided a week ago in the city parliament, the east-west connection will be closed to motorized traffic at night, on weekends and during school holidays.

Before the permanent closure can be decided, "an overall and diversion concept is needed," says Pürsün.

The coalition agrees on this.

Lieb just wanted to make this requirement clear to the public again: "No blocking without a concept."

The designated Greens head of mobility, Siefert, sees no dissent between the Greens and the FDP.

The basis for the decisions at Mainkai is the coalition agreement.