Frankfurt Mayor Peter Feldmann (SPD) always had a trump card up his sleeve.

In contrast to his political competitors, he was the more accessible: closer to the people, more normal - and therefore more successful in the city.

His themes were those of the “little people”: apartments, free day-care centers, local public transport.

For many people, the coverage of his connections to the workers' welfare scandals and the prosecution's indictment seemed too abstract by comparison.

The person who was elected directly by the people with an overwhelming majority felt safe because of this support and the complicated voting procedure.

Resigning was out of the question for him.

But these popular times are over.

With Feldmann's embarrassment around the Eintracht cup celebrations, he has messed it up with exactly that group of people who have so far been interested in topics other than his wives, children and capers.

Last trump out of hand

But now the recent Feldmann volts are being followed just as emotionally.

Of course, you didn't have to wait long to see a new embarrassment: before his multiple Eintracht dropouts in the Römer, there is a video showing his old man's joke speech on the plane with fans on the way to Seville: "Hormonally out of action “ Both the ground staff and the flight attendants would have set him beforehand.

Feldmann's often thoughtless looseness, which previously brought him so many plus points in dialogue with the voters, is now having the opposite effect on him.

Feldmann gave up his last trump card.

It is interesting that Feldmann is traveling to Davos for the World Economic Forum at the same time that things are finally escalating at home in the Römer.

In the mountains, of all places, meets the world in which Feldmann felt particularly uncomfortable at the beginning of his term as mayor - and with which he is still alien, even if he was recently a guest at the elite meeting.

This trip seems like an escape from reality: it would be advisable to appear before the public at home, to protest one's own innocence if necessary, and otherwise to avert further damage to the city by immediately demanding a withdrawal, which one's own party has now also demanded .

Instead, Feldmann bluntly attends to all the important appointments that his office has to offer.

The man, who wanted to exercise restraint above all else, acts like an addict afraid of withdrawal.

But it is time for the return journey: to reality.