May 20, 2018 is perhaps the most beautiful day in Peter Feldmann's political life.

The mayor of Frankfurt is grinning broadly on the balcony of his town hall, the Römer.

Next to them are the Eintracht footballers, who won the DFB Cup the day before.

Beneath them is a densely packed crowd of people who were in a frenzy of joy after winning the final against Bayern.

Feldmann has already been allowed to accompany the team on the triumphal procession from the airport to the city, in the open car that coach Niko Kovac also drove to the Römer.

It would be that time again this week if Eintracht wins the Europa League in the final in Seville.

For Feldmann, however, the May experience will not be repeated.

Eintracht has already meant to him that this time there would be no space in the motorcade, so it can be heard.

One would like to keep one's distance from the mayor, against whom the public prosecutor's office has brought charges on suspicion of accepting an advantage.

However, Eintracht cannot take away the right to step onto the Romans' balcony with the European Cup winners' entourage, after all he is the head of the house.

But it's not without risk for him.

What if the fans break their enthusiasm for a moment and express their disapproval to the mayor?

Betrayal of bourgeois pride

The packed Römerberg could become the site of a plebiscite on May 19.

And thus fill a gap left by the Hessian municipal code.

It does not provide any means with which the deselection of a mayor of a large city could realistically be brought about.

Fortunately for Feldmann, who is clinging to the illusion that he still has popular support.

It would be fitting if, on the Roman's balcony, he was disabused by the sovereign at his feet.

Such exits from the town hall are tricky terrain for democratically elected politicians anyway, because as a political stage they signal grandeur.

In the case of Frankfurt, the situation is made even more difficult by the fact that the balcony was attached to the previously unassuming facade of the Römer in Wilhelmine times, together with all sorts of imperial figure decorations in the historicist taste of the epoch.

With the conversion, the city leaders at the time were guilty of betrayal of their civic pride.

As if to eternal punishment, their more democratically legitimized successors are usually only allowed to enter the balcony as companions of personalities who do not derive their position from elections and can therefore accept homage without appearing presumptuous.

Apart from athletes, the last time was the Queen in 2015 - who has an unerring sense of when and for whom a balcony appearance is appropriate.