It's only been 14 months since the new coalition unveiled its elaborate plans for the forthcoming electoral term at Frankfurt City Hall, and yet it seems like a different era.

It took a long time for the four-party alliance to start its work in September, but since then new crises have come to the fore, making the ambitious work program of May 2021 forgotten.

The corona virus has lasted longer than initially thought, the consequences of the Ukraine war are manifold and cannot yet be overlooked at all, the ongoing crisis surrounding the mayor is absorbing forces, and now there is also the aggravation of the already bad situation in the station district, which can no longer be overlooked.

It's not as if the coalition can't report any progress at all.

The agreement on the fairground as the new location of the European School is one of them, and the construction of a multifunctional hall also seems to be progressing.

What is called traffic policy, blocking roads and painting red bike lanes, is simple - but if the coalition wants it that way, you will have to certify that it is pushing ahead with its goals at this point.

All in all, that's not much.

It is becoming clearer that the alliance lacks a centre, a leadership structure, actually someone who takes matters into their own hands and steers them when things get tricky.

This has already been shown when it took an unnecessarily long time for the coalition to find a common course in dealing with the mayor, and it is even more evident in the current discussion about the station district.

The helplessness seems great, an agreement between the city councillors, let alone a strategy, does not exist or is tangible, some statements of the past few days read like an oath of disclosure.

The alliance in Frankfurt City Hall will not be able to hope for better times.

It will focus on core tasks, become faster and have to act more vigorously if Frankfurt is to be governed in a forward-looking manner.

It would be necessary: ​​The tasks for the magistrate and the city councilors are greater than they have been for a long time.