What was possible in Frankfurt with the deselection of Peter Feldmann (SPD) gave some Schwalbachers new impetus.

"The supporters of the petition are demanding that the Schwalbach city parliament decides to vote out Mayor Alexander Immisch or that he voluntarily resigns from his office," says a petition on the Openpetition.de platform.

Almost 600 citizens have signed so far.

The reason for the dissatisfaction are fixed-term deposits of 19 million euros made by Mayor Immisch (SPD) and which have now been lost after the insolvency of Bremen's Greensill Bank.

Andrea Diener

Correspondent in the Main-Taunus district

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Schwalbach is not alone with his bitter loss.

17 German cities and municipalities have joined forces to form an interest group to reclaim a total of 145 million euros.

Among them are Wiesbaden, Hanau, Osnabrück, the district of Eichsfeld, the municipality of Diez, Giessen and Schwalbach.

It was probably worst for Monheim, which had to write off 38 million euros.

Eschborn lost almost as much, namely 35 million.

Other communities, such as the cities of Cologne and Gießen, have hired lawyers, and the state of Thuringia is also affected.

According to the "Handelsblatt", more than 40 cities, municipalities and regional authorities have invested around half a billion euros in the Greensill Bank.

Petition as a tool for citizens

The initiator of the online petition to vote out the mayor is Mathias Schlosser, publisher of the "Schwalbacher Zeitung", a local advertising newspaper.

In his own publication, he rejects criticism of his approach, which is not committed to neutrality.

"With the petition, we have merely provided a tool with which citizens can participate in the discussion, which they have been denied so far.

We will not actively collect votes for voting out the mayor.

Others have to do that and that's not the job of a newspaper either."

However, the petition, with which the editors want to “get a picture of the mood”, is reported on frequently.

Mood images can also be obtained by other means than a petition that has a clear purpose.

Schlosser receives support from the opposition of the red-black city hall coalition, namely the Greens.

"The logical political consequence of the disaster caused by Mayor Immisch would have been an immediate resignation," said Barbara Blaschek-Bernhardt, leader of the Schwalbach Greens.

Unfortunately, he didn't use his chance for a face-saving exit.

However, the Greens calculate that voting out of office is only possible if the SPD also withdraws its confidence in the mayor or if the CDU “revises its uncritical opinion of the mayor”.

In Frankfurt there was a two-thirds majority in the magistrate against Feldmann, in Schwalbach, on the other hand, the governing parties are behind their mayor.

confusion at City Hall

In the town hall and in the governing factions, people are irritated by the petition.

City council leader Günter Pabst (SPD) said that the city parliament had dealt with the events surrounding the Greensill Bank in many meetings last year.

A file inspection committee was set up, the investments were checked and a special internal report was prepared, as was a version intended for the public.

New investment guidelines have been passed, which are even stricter than intended by the Hessian Association of Towns and Municipalities.

The head of the city council says it is the citizen's right to sign such a petition, but he will not join it.

"However, it is important to me

to point out the democratic process and the correct procedure and intensive work in the city parliament," adds Pabst.

However, he missed objectivity and fairness at one point or another in the dispute.

Mayor Alexander Immisch is also surprised by the petition that the publisher of the Schwalbacher Zeitung has drawn up.

Although Immisch signed the fixed-term deposits at Greensill, he did not do it negligently.

At that time he had only been in office for three days as mayor, and the specialist office that had selected the facility in order to avoid negative interest had presented him with the finished documents for signature.

"Usually fixed-term deposits are not a high-risk investment," says Immisch.

At the time, he did not know that the Hessian Ministry of the Interior had passed a resolution in 2018 that no longer secured deposits with private banks for cities and municipalities, and that the magistrate then made a similar decision in 2019.

"If I had known, I would have stuck to it," said Immisch.

He very much regrets what happened, but now wants to represent Schwalbach as best he can.

Immisch has been the head of town hall since June 7, 2020, and Greensill went bankrupt in March 2021.

Whether the mayor knew about the investment decision is still disputed in the city council today.

CDU and SPD see him relieved, the opposition, on the other hand, makes serious accusations against him and comes to a different conclusion.

So far, the city has never invested any money with Greensill, which only happened under Immisch's administration.

The bankruptcy proceedings of the private bank will drag on for a while - the political disputes in Schwalbach probably too.