At the moment, the parliamentary groups of the Greens, SPD and Volt are discussing in the Römer whether they will decide to vote out Frankfurt's mayor Peter Feldmann (SPD) in the last session of the city parliament before the summer break this Thursday.

That's how they had planned it until the beginning of last week and submitted the required voting request on time and in a formally correct manner.

The FDP, the fourth partner in the Roman coalition, had already made a commitment on Monday: "We decided to vote out the mayor for lack of a better alternative," says group leader Yanki Pürsün.

Bernhard Biener

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung

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Catherine Iskandar

Responsible editor for the "Rhein-Main" department of the Sunday newspaper.

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Mechthild Harting

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Feldmann himself surprisingly initiated this discussion last week that there could be an alternative to this deselection on July 14.

In a personal statement on Tuesday, he announced his resignation for next January.

On Friday he then specified that there could be two options for his resignation: a deselection procedure, as is now planned, which would then only be decided in January, and his application for "retirement for special reasons".

On Monday, Feldmann then said in a conversation with the four parliamentary group leaders of the Roman coalition – an initial conversation on Sunday had failed – that for him the only option was to be voted out in mid-January.

He no longer wanted to apply for retirement.

Factions were angry

Feldmann verbally assured the coalition on Monday that he would accept the deselection in writing within the specified period of one week after the decision by the city councilors in January.

Such a procedure would make the decision of the citizens, which would otherwise be necessary when voting out of office, to explicitly vote Feldmann out of office in a separate ballot, lapse.

That could have been an interesting offer for the coalition if Feldmann had presented it as the only solution from the start.

However, the factions on Monday and Tuesday were angry that the mayor was dictating the conditions for his deselection almost every day.

Or, as a city councilor from the Roman coalition put it: Feldmann kept everything moving so that no one could find a footing.

In addition, a lot of trust between the coalition and the SPD mayor has been lost in the past few days.

There is great uncertainty in Römer as to whether Feldmann's statement that he will definitely accept the city parliament's resolution in January and actually resign will stand the test of time.

Finally, in mid-October, the trial before the Frankfurt district court begins, in which Peter Feldmann has to answer on suspicion of accepting an advantage.

Isn't Feldmann speculating that the suspicion of corruption won't be substantiated and that he might be acquitted?

Would it still be possible to apply for a vote at all?

The CDU, whose votes are necessary for each procedure, since the decisions must all be made with a two-thirds majority, insists on deciding on the vote-out motion this Thursday.

According to faction leader Nils Kößler, there are "enough reasons to vote this mayor out of office." The CDU is actually demanding Feldmann's immediate resignation.

Since he does not act on his own initiative, "deselection is the right solution," says Kößler.

Against the background of the process beginning in the fall, Kößler does not think it is conceivable that the vote would be postponed to a date in January, for which a special session of the city parliament would also have to be scheduled.

Because then the city will "experience embarrassing trial days in October and November, during which the incumbent mayor will sit in the dock in the courtroom."

Feldmann is said to have sought a conversation with the respective chairmen in the afternoon before the parliamentary group meetings in order to find a joint solution.

He spoke of a misunderstanding regarding the question of the second option, which he made public on Friday.

And it was about further commitments from Feldmann to guarantee his departure from office in January.

According to reports, the representatives of the coalition factions did not react to this.

It was said that the offers were not serious.

Meanwhile, the police said that there were still unanswered questions in the investigation into the accident that became known on Tuesday, in which Feldmann is said to have touched a car while parking.

According to the police, Feldmann himself has not yet commented in more detail on the incident.

The reasons he gave were appointments that he had to keep.

The investigation deals with the suspicion of hit-and-run.