After the allegations and demands for his resignation in the past few days, Mayor Peter Feldmann (SPD) wants to appear before the press this Wednesday.

He has announced that a short statement will be read, after which there will be no opportunity for questions.

For this appointment, the mayor has already returned early from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where Feldmann was supposed to represent the city of Frankfurt at a reception in the evening and also speak there.

Feldmann is now represented by Offenbach Mayor Felix Schwenke (SPD), as his spokesman confirmed when asked by the FAZ.

Rainer Schulz

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Matthew Trautsch

Coordination report Rhein-Main.

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In the past few days, demands for the resignation of the mayor, who has often been criticized, have increased.

The current trigger was a lewd speech to Eintracht fans on the flight to the European Cup final in Seville, which had brought Feldmann the accusation of sexism.

He had said the flight crew put him "hormonally incapacitated".

Despite an apology, the outrage did not abate.

Not only did the opposition and coalition partners demand his immediate resignation, his own party did as well.

So far, she had only called for his resignation from office in the event that court proceedings against him in the AWO affair were actually opened.

The public prosecutor's office has indicted the mayor on suspicion of taking advantage.

Feldmann denies the allegations, but had announced that he would refrain from public appearances.

Nevertheless, he had received the Frankfurt Eintracht in the town hall after winning the cup and, according to many critics, pushed himself to the fore.

The young socialists, who were loyal to him to the end, are now dropping him.

Feldmann's public appearances are irritating and embarrassing and caused a stir nationwide, according to a statement.

Feldmann is not holding back, resigning is the only face-saving solution.

"As a feminist association, we have no tolerance for this behavior and do not consider it compatible with social democratic values," it said in relation to his behavior on the plane.

“We consider Peter Feldmann's resignation to be necessary.

These appearances damage the SPD and our reputation as a feminist party," says deputy Juso spokeswoman Dorit Meyer.

“Solution at taxpayer expense”

According to the SPD's proposal, Feldmann could resign in accordance with Section 76a of the Hessian Municipal Code (HGO).

This is “retirement for special reasons”.

A Lord Mayor can apply for it if "the trust required for the further exercise of office is no longer placed in him".

The prerequisite is that he has been a temporary civil servant for eight years and is at least 50 years old.

Feldmann has both.

The City Council must approve the motion with a two-thirds majority.

Retirement would then begin next month, and Feldmann would receive a pension with only minor deductions.

Critics see this as a solution at the expense of taxpayers: "That would mean that Feldmann would be rewarded for his misconduct with full salary and full pension," says CDU politician Christoph Schmitt.

As mayor of the fifth largest city in Germany, Feldmann has so far received around 13,000 euros a month, according to a self-disclosure, the pension is likely to be more than half of that.


After the retirement of the 63-year-old, the current mayor and head of the diversity department, Nargess Eskandari-Grünberg (The Greens), would temporarily head the city until a new election might be brought forward.

This would put the 57-year-old psychologist in a position that she had aimed for in the 2018 mayoral election, but clearly missed out on coming third.

At that time she received 9.3 percent of the votes, while Feldmann achieved an impressive election victory with 70.8 percent.

Meanwhile, the CDU parliamentary group has renewed its invitation to all other parliamentary groups in the city council to join their motion to be voted out of office if the mayor does not immediately comply with the demands made of him to resign.

The votes of the opposition are not sufficient for the initiation of the procedure.

However, early deselection is time-consuming and time-consuming.

Two thirds of the city councilors would have to decide on the motion to vote out.

But that would only be a first step: Because the mayor was elected directly, he would also have to be voted out by at least 30 percent of those eligible to vote.

The SPD does not rule out joining a voting procedure if necessary, but has expressed the wish that Feldmann should act himself.