The Municipal Foreigners' Representation (KAV), as heated and divided as it sometimes seems, finds unity on issues that affect all delegates.

At the most recent meeting, a 22-year-old woman silenced the KAV members when she recounted a racist attack that happened to her in Frankfurt about a month ago.

Monica Ganster

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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On May 31, Saleha G. got off the subway at around 2 p.m. in Praunheim on Stephan-Heise-Strasse to pick up two children from the French school.

On her way through the Westhausen housing estate, a man came towards her on a quiet side street.

As he passed her, the young woman noticed that her long hair, which fell over her right shoulder, had caught fire.

She cried out, swatted out the flames with her hand in panic and heard the man shouting behind her back as they walked away: "Get out of my country!".

A lack of compassion from others has left its mark

The young woman's voice begins to tremble as she remembers this at the KAV.

"What's he saying there, I thought, that's my country too," says the native of Frankfurt, describing her first thoughts after the crime.

She doesn't know of any place where she feels more comfortable - or has felt, because since the incident, fear has been her companion when she meets someone alone on the street.

"Then I always turn around and see if everything is okay."

Saleha G., whose parents are from Pakistan, had not experienced any racism in Germany before this attack.

Or at least thought so.

Since then she has been reflecting on a lot of what she has heard at school and at work, she says.

The lack of sympathy from others for the incident also left its mark: those residents and passers-by who saw her crying on the side of the road after the fire attack and did not react.

"Only a nine-year-old girl tried to comfort me," she recalls.

Or the reaction of those police officers who were the first to arrive at the crime scene and questioned their perception rather harshly and with little empathy, only to then leave them alone.

Only the next day did a detective inspector report

who has since taken care of her in an exemplary manner and has given her therapeutic help in processing the experience.

Numerous KAV delegates express their sympathy and solidarity with the young woman.

Two-thirds majority in Parliament required

Armand Zorn (SPD), member of the Bundestag, who has represented Frankfurt’s constituency 182 in the Bundestag since September 2021, was another guest that evening.

Zorn was only partially able to satisfy the urgent need of the delegates to find out more from him in the Berlin atmosphere about the status of legislative projects that affect them personally.

The so-called dual citizenship is laid down in the coalition agreement and can be implemented in 2023 at the earliest, said Zorn.

On the other hand, he gave little hope when it came to local voting rights for foreigners.

This requires a two-thirds majority in parliament, which the incumbent coalition cannot unite behind it.

"The CDU will not give us any gifts," said the parliamentarian.

In the end, Mayor Peter Feldmann (SPD) even managed to get the focus of attention of the KAV representatives.

With an emergency motion, Seyed Shahram Iranbomy wanted to convince the majority of the delegates to prevent expensive voting procedures against Feldmann.

The estimated 1.5 million should be better invested in German courses for refugees, he said.

In order to settle the disputes with the mayor, Iranbomy relies on an arbitration board.

However, his proposal to have the idea put on the agenda as a matter of urgency was rejected by a narrow majority with numerous abstentions.