The coalition agreement of the Frankfurt city government is big, its goals are far-reaching, the words are powerful, but the reality does not want to bow to the 200-page work.
"Fireworks are a source of immense emissions and waste," write the Greens, SPD, FDP and Volt in a firm tone on line 510 of the 5848 of this contract, which they presented in May 2021.
And: "We want to introduce a municipal light show on New Year's Eve and make it so attractive that it will increasingly replace private fireworks."
And it really shouldn't be any easier than that: a light spectacle above the city's towers in the night of nights that is second to none - and all firecracker fans would put the firecrackers on the ground in awe and stare in amazement at the emission-free sky, and it would be a single "Ah" and "Oh" and the city government would be standing on the Roman balcony and rejoicing in life.
But oh, it's one thing that coalition members think and quite another what comes of it.
No legal recourse, no money, no nothing
In any case, the magistrate has now officially commented on the status of the plans for such a brilliant light show, after all, New Year's Eve is getting closer and closer, and everything reads completely different now.
"The private New Year's Eve fireworks mean an avoidable air hygiene burden," writes the administration, but then goes on: "The existing public interest behind this tradition can probably not be completely replaced by public central light shows or central fireworks."
Oh no, can't it?
But it gets worse.
"However, the regulatory office points out that there is no municipal regulatory tool to compulsorily curb the private use of fireworks starting with the coming turn of the year 2022/23," reads further.
Not nice for the coalition plans either.
But their destruction goes on, on and on.
Because it can also be read in the magistrate's report that the search for sponsors for such a light show, if there were one, would prove to be "enormously difficult to impossible" in view of experiences with comparable major events, leaving only one possibility: no funds the city budget, or, as the bureaucrats say: "For a centrally aligned light show or a central fireworks display, the provision of funds from the city budget would therefore be indispensable."
But at this point even the magistrate stops arguing, and one can imagine why.
Just think, now in the fall, while citizens don't know how to pay their gas bills, city councilors would have to approve money for a sky spectacle just to put the bad citizens in their place who are unforgivably keen on firing Chinese firecrackers .
In short: no legal recourse, no money, nothing at all - a political project has rarely been buried more beautifully.
But the coalition agreement does not only know the 510th line, the people of Frankfurt can certainly trust that the proposals of the ladies and gentlemen of the coalition partners on the other 5847 lines will not be dismantled by the administration in the same way.
Something will be found with which the city government will leave its mark.
Apparently not with a light show.