There are many indications that the city of Frankfurt is about to launch a vote-out procedure against Lord Mayor Peter Feldmann.
At least that's what the city councilors threatened on Thursday for the next meeting on July 14 in the event that Feldmann doesn't comply with the demand to resign.
Since Feldmann is directly elected, the citizens would have to vote him out of office.
According to the Hessian Municipal Code, that would be the case if a majority of the valid votes were found for it.
This majority would be at least 30 percent of those entitled to vote.
The hurdle is generally considered to be high, especially in large cities with usually very low voter turnout in municipal ballots, but has already been successfully overcome in Duisburg, for example (after the fatal disaster at the Love Parade in 2010).
In the mayoral election in 2018, participation in the runoff election in Frankfurt was 30.2 percent.
Feldmann clearly won with around 70 percent of the votes.
The cost of voting out is estimated at 1.5 million euros.
Feldmann, whose term of office ends regularly in 2024, could not only save the citizens a lot of organizational effort but also these costs with a voluntary withdrawal.
Early retirement would be cheaper
A transfer to early retirement would be significantly cheaper, but the 63-year-old politician would have to apply for it himself.
He would then only have to reckon with small deductions on his pension.
Another option would be to combine the deselection with the Hessian state elections.
Feldmann is under a lot of pressure because of a corruption charge by the public prosecutor's office in the AWO affair, a self-centered and embarrassing appearance at Eintracht's European Cup reception and because of a sexist statement about flight attendants;
even his own party is demanding immediate resignation.
On Thursday, however, he again emphasized that he wanted to hold on to his office and face the vote of the citizens in the deselection process.