The FDP has its own candidate in the Frankfurt mayoral elections in March.

If she finds a suitable person, she has to narrow it down.

With a large majority, the members approved an emergency motion by the district board on Saturday to strive for their own candidacy in the election and to look for an internal or external applicant in a “transparent search process”.

Bernhard Biener

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung

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"Especially in this election, we should make a liberal offer," said party leader Thorsten Lieb.

The FDP should not shy away from fear of a bad result from the outset.

None of the candidates discussed so far by the other parties is someone who is attractive to entrepreneurs or who sees himself as the top business promoter.

Despite all agreement in principle, there was criticism that a decision on a personnel proposal should not be made until December 7th.

"The search should have started three or four weeks ago," said former member of the Bundestag and State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics, Hans-Joachim Otto.

Now begin a "wild chase" on an applicant.

However, he also regretted that the other parties had refused to agree on a non-partisan mayoral candidate after Peter Feldmann (SPD) was voted out.

An amendment to first look for an applicant and only then take the basic decision did not find a majority.

In the days before the general meeting, Lieb had said that he did not want to run for mayor himself.

He stood for re-election as party chairman on Saturday.

With 67.5 percent of the 117 valid votes, he achieved his worst result since taking office in 2016.

He could certainly point to successes.

When the Frankfurt FDP had 700 members, he once mentioned the figure of 1,000.

"Today we have 1,244 party members," said Lieb.

However, the FDP must become more attractive to women and more diverse overall.

The old and new chairman spoke of "two exciting years with successful elections", after which the FDP in the federal government and in Frankfurt would help to dissolve the "encrustation in the country".

The coalition was also difficult to deal with in Frankfurt.

"But the coalition agreement bears a clear liberal signature." This was shown by the many discussions in the coalition committee.

"If the partners want to renegotiate, the contract can't be that bad."

But the critics of the FDP's four-party alliance with the Greens, SPD and Volt once again spoke out, and their assessment of the party's situation differed significantly.

"Since the federal election, the FDP has messed up every election," said Otto.

Even if the parliamentary group achieves significant things, the voters could not yet recognize the corrective function of the FDP.

"We're getting sick again at five percent," said the former head of the Federal Employment Agency, Florian Gerster: "We're fighting to stay up."

With the unanimously agreed demand to end the illegal forest occupation in the Riederwald immediately and to start the clearing work, the party congress set the signal demanded by the critics.

It is also about constitutional principles, said the security and mobility policy spokesman for the Roman faction, Uwe Schulz: "We don't want any eco-sects that declare their own rights in the manner of Reich citizens." Schulz also campaigned for the application, the weapons ban zone planned by the police to support in the station district.

The restriction to the station district and the night time is proportionate and justified by the number of injuries with knives, said Schulz: "I agree with the police chief." The motion was accepted with a few negative votes and abstentions.

There were several contested candidates for the rest of the board.

As the successor to the deputy chairwoman Annette Rinn, Frankfurt's head of public order, Sebastian Papke was able to assert himself against Ina Klemm, who was later elected as an assessor.

Other deputies were Stephanie Wüst, head of the economics department, and Wolfgang Weyand, who achieved the best result with just under 88 percent.

Treasurer Frank Maiwald was only able to defend his office in the run-off against Carina Leidig, who was a member of the previous board as an assessor and was the only one who had voted against the coalition agreement.