The Frankfurt CDU is moving into the mayoral election campaign with its previous party leader Uwe Becker.

On Saturday, the members elected the 53-year-old State Secretary for Federal and European Affairs and Hessian Anti-Semitism Commissioner as their candidate with a result of 92.5 percent.

Becker received 235 of 254 votes cast, with two abstentions.

Because these do not count according to the CDU statutes, the internal party result is 93.3 percent.

Bernhard Biener

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung

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Becker announced a "restart for Frankfurt" after the previous incumbent Peter Feldmann (SPD) was voted out in a referendum on November 6th.

"I know the city from A to Z and know Frankfurt from A to Z," said Becker, who was a member of the full-time magistrate as social and sports department head, chamberlain and mayor.

The mayoral election is on March 5 next year.

After Becker announced when he was nominated by the board that he would resign as party chairman, which he had only taken on eight months ago, the election of his successor in this office was also on the agenda.

Nils Kößler, the leader of the CDU parliamentary group in Römer, now also leads the party.

The 45-year-old lawyer was elected with 88.5 percent of 207 yes and 27 no votes.

"The opposite of Peter Feldmann"

At the beginning of the party congress, the Hessian Prime Minister Boris Rhein (CDU) recommended Uwe Becker to the members for the mayoral candidacy as “the complete opposite of Peter Feldmann”.

He has integrity, focuses on the citizens and not himself and develops an idea of ​​the city.

In addition, he is "Frankfurter through and through." As an anti-Semitism officer, he knows how to bring people together and build bridges.

In his application speech, Becker said that the city is currently not being run.

The station district is falling into disrepair, the schools are not being renovated and the authorities, such as the immigration office, are overwhelmed.

In addition, in difficult times, the economic promoters leave the city.

"I will end the catastrophic conditions in the station district," announced the CDU candidate.

This includes expanding the offers of help and eliminating the open drug scene.

One should not only take care of the drug addicts in their misery: "The word exit does not fall into any discussion."

He will make cleanliness a top priority again, Becker promised.

"The staff unit belongs in the mayor's office." Regarding the energy crisis, in which people were afraid of the next electricity bill, he said: "In Frankfurt, nobody can and must freeze." For clubs, he will launch a special program because of the high energy prices.

Becker also set ecological goals.

With photovoltaics "on all roofs", the waste heat from data centers, biomass, deep geothermal energy and the connection to the planned hydrogen logistics network, Frankfurt and the Rhine-Main area should obtain all their electricity from renewable energies by 2030 and in the long term become " Plus-Energy-Region”, i.e. produce more than they consume.

It must be possible to do this with six strong energy suppliers, the universities and the research institutes located here.

When it came to traffic, Becker pleaded for the construction of the Riederwald Tunnel, which had been planned for 40 years, because law and order now count.

After the regional tangent west had been started, a regional tangent east had to be planned in parallel.

grumbling about the procedure

When it comes to urban development, Becker wants to focus on organic growth in the existing districts instead of new ones.

"The so-called Josefsstadt is dead, whether on this side or on the other side of the autobahn." For the schools, he announced a "school building booster" of 100 million euros a year.

The candidate presented himself as a "social person with a down-to-earth attitude." In order for everyone to find each other again in Frankfurt, one had to "cut out old habits": people who lived here in the third or fourth generation shouldn't still be referred to as having a "migration background ' stamped as second-class citizens.

After his speech, the members rose to applause.

There were critical words before the election of the new party leader Kößler, who, like Becker, had been proposed by the board.

Jochem Heumann spoke of “grumbling and humming in the party and at least one resignation” because of the procedure.

Axel Kaufmann from the CDU Westend also saw the "old back room" when making the selection at work.

The only argument for this in this case is: "Both personnel proposals are good."