"Frankfurt deserves better and the city parliament deserves someone who fully respects our decisions." With these words, Dimitrios Bakakis, leader of the Greens in Römer, reacted to the fact that Lord Mayor Peter Feldmann (SPD) not only, as previously known, at the end of September surprisingly handed over the draft for a town twinning agreement to the Mayor of Kiev Vitali Klitschko in Prague, but had already written to Klitschko on June 24, stating that Frankfurt's city councilors wanted a twinning with a Ukrainian city.

Mechthild Harting

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

  • Follow I follow

That's what Feldmann's answer to Bakakis' question says.

However, Feldmann did not present the answer orally in the city parliament on Thursday – as usual – because he had called in sick.

His deputy, Mayor Nargess Eskandari-Grünberg of the Greens, took on this task.

The information not only outraged Bakakis, who accused the mayor of "creating facts on his own authority and alone".

Bakakis wanted to know on what basis Feldmann had acted.

With his actions, the mayor disregarded a different resolution of the city parliament.

On May 12, the latter had decided that the magistrate should only enter into a partnership with a Ukrainian city after the end of the Russian war of aggression.

The city councilors had only asked to "already deal with which city would offer itself for a partnership with Ukraine".

As Eskandari-Grünberg pointed out from Feldmann's answer, Feldmann derived an immediate work order from it and turned to Kyiv.

"Of course, the matter will be put to the city council for a vote as soon as the war is over," he said in his reply.

"Showmanship, beautiful pictures, self-portrayal and profiling"

For the SPD parliamentary group leader Ursula Busch it is clear that Feldmann interpreted the order differently than decided by parliament.

For them, this confirms that with Feldmann "the transmitter still works, but no longer the receiver".

A mayor who doesn't take the decisions of the city parliament seriously "tackles the roots of democracy very hard".

Feldmann's personal situation blocks his view of "what his rights, duties and tasks are".

That prompted the SPD to agree to let the citizens decide on Feldmann's deselection on November 6th.

Presenting a partnership agreement to Kyiv without a mandate is not the mayor's first misstep for Volt faction leader Martin Huber, but one that "fits seamlessly into the long line of Peter Feldmann's self-portrayal".

Not the mayor, the city parliament is the highest body in the city.

Huber asks whether this mayor can still have a positive effect and immediately gives the answer: "The thing is done."

Kyiv already has city partnerships with Berlin and Hamburg, said Yannick Schwander (CDU).

“We wanted a suitable city.” But Feldmann is only interested in “gimmicky effects, beautiful pictures, self-portrayal and profiling”.

The citizens should therefore vote on November 6th and say "yes for Frankfurt".

For Yanki Pürsün (FDP), it is a scandal that the draft contract has not yet been submitted to the magistrate or city council.

The procedure is dishonest to Kyiv: "It's Feldmann never about the matter."