Chère Manuela Rottmann,” the loudspeakers rang out.
It is the voice of Grégory Doucet, French Green Party politician and mayor of Lyon since 2020.
Doucet is present via video message at this New Year's reception of the Frankfurt Greens, which marks the start of the election campaign of Frankfurt's mayoral candidate Manuela Rottmann.
He, along with the mayors of Milan, Budapest and Bonn, all politicians from Green parties, are declaring that they support Rottmann's candidacy in Frankfurt.
"We," says Doucet, "are striving for a common vision in Frankfurt and Lyon: a new model of ecological and solidarity-based prosperity." visible.
Mechthild Harting
Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.
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Although Rottmann is the main person at this reception, he is the last person to address the 500 invited guests from culture, universities and business and the Green Party colleagues, i.e. from the much-cited city society, on this Thursday evening in the Palais Frankfurt.
Frankfurt's mayor, Nargess Eskandari-Grünberg, and Hesse's science minister, Angela Dorn (also Green politicians), had already got in the mood for the Greens' mayoral campaign.
Rottmann initially warns all those who are taking part in an event organized by the Greens for the first time.
"We may not be able to fulfill your worst fears," says the former Frankfurt city councilor, who has been a member of the Bundestag since 2017.
In their opinion, the wild, rebellious times of the Greens are over.
"There used to be more lametta."
Rottmann wants to stand for new beginnings and new beginnings in Frankfurt.
If she has her way, there should be in “democratic, social, economic and ecological” terms.
The lawyer knows that she owes the chance to campaign for the mayoral office in Germany's fifth-largest city this winter to the people of Frankfurt, who voted in November to vote Peter Feldmann out of office.
And those in the Römer who initiated the voting out of the then SPD mayor in July.
"I have great respect for them," says Rottmann, announcing that it is important to her to conduct the current election campaign "decently and openly."
She wants to approach those who don't yet feel part of the city.
The election campaign should be a departure for democracy.
Then Rottmann, who is always so factual and sober, lashes out in the direction of her competitors by saying: A mayoral election is a personality election.
“But you don’t gain them in a big city like Frankfurt just by having inner values.” She left it up to her to decide which of her main competitors she was targeting with the comment – the CDU politician Uwe Becker or the SPD city councilor Mike Josef the listeners.
Rottmann announces that he stands for visions and wants to make Frankfurt fit for the future.
As the main task, she names the goal that Frankfurt should be climate-neutral by 2035.
"That's only twelve years left," she says, adding: "Or two terms for a mayor." The urgency of the topic is clear to everyone in view of the turn of the year in a T-shirt.
Everyone feels: "Something is wrong here." Everyone knows what that means for humanity.
That is why she wants to make Frankfurt “the number one location for socially and climate-friendly living” and at the same time ensure that “industry and trade have a future in Frankfurt”.
In a densely populated city like Frankfurt, the car "can no longer be the vehicle for every day and every journey".
Those who need vehicles, such as craftsmen, emergency services or suppliers, would do better if you make room for other mobility.
"There's a lot more waiting for Frankfurt than looking for a parking space." The city needs streets and squares on which everyone can move freely and safely, on which life can be had with "clean air and no rubbish".
Cities like Paris, Vienna, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, as well as the partner cities Budapest, Milan and Lyon showed how inner cities were reviving,
Retail and tourism benefited.
For Rottmann, Frankfurt belongs "in this group of innovative European metropolises that are leading the way in climate protection."