Baden-Württemberg: Third attempt: Michael Matzak new mayor

All good things come in threes? Formal blunders twice ruined the election of the mayor of a small community in the Göppingen district.

Baden-Württemberg: Third attempt: Michael Matzak new mayor

All good things come in threes? Formal blunders twice ruined the election of the mayor of a small community in the Göppingen district. The executive chair has been vacant for months.

Birenbach (dpa/lsw) - The third time it worked: after two unsuccessful attempts, the citizens of Birenbach in the Göppingen district elected Michael Matzak as their new mayor on Sunday. According to the preliminary result, the 32-year-old prevailed against his competitors with 64.94 percent of the votes. He previously worked as a civil servant at Vermögens und Bau - a state agency of the Ministry of Finance and has been a municipal councilor in Birenbach since 2014.

The executive chair of the 1945-inhabitant community has been vacant for months. According to the Göppingen district office, the previous mayor has been on sick leave since September 2021. In August, the authority finally granted an application for dismissal.

The search for a successor failed twice due to formal mishaps. The Birenbachers should go to the ballot box for the first time on August 7th. However, because the municipality incorrectly stated the start of the deadline for applications in the advertisement, the election had to be postponed. The tender would otherwise have been contestable, said a spokeswoman.

The second attempt also failed. In the election planned for September 25, the community was once again doomed by violating the formal requirements. The tender was initially published without a date on the municipality's website and also violated municipal legal requirements in terms of content, the district office said.

The district office canceling an election is extremely rare and has not happened in recent years. During the pandemic, an election was only postponed by municipalities, said the spokeswoman.