The Mayor of Frankfurt, Feldmann, has to answer in court in the fall. He will not voluntarily leave office until January. But the city councilors don't want to wait that long.
Frankfurt/Main (dpa/lhe) - Frankfurt's Lord Mayor Peter Feldmann (SPD) is to be voted out of office by the citizens. The city council voted on Thursday in the Römer town hall with 67 votes to vote out the controversial mayor. If Feldmann does not accept the deselection, a referendum will follow. In October, Feldmann has to appear in court on allegations of corruption.
Feldmann himself had recently offered to leave office in January. The coalition factions had decided on Wednesday evening not to wait until January, but to leave the previously submitted motion for deselection on the agenda. The necessary two-thirds majority was considered safe. An alliance of Greens, SPD, FDP and Volt governs the Römer in Frankfurt, but Feldmann also wants to get rid of the opposition CDU.
The referendum could take place in November at the earliest. At least 30 percent of those entitled to vote would have to vote for Feldmann's deselection. In view of the rather low voter turnout in local elections in Frankfurt, this is a high hurdle. If Feldmann does not accept the deselection, he will stand trial as the acting mayor.
The public prosecutor's office brought charges in March on suspicion of accepting an advantage. It's about Feldmann's close ties to Arbeiterwohlfahrt (Awo). Feldmann's wife is said to have received a salary in excess of the collective agreement as the head of an Awo day-care center "without any objective reason". According to the public prosecutor, Awo also supported Feldmann in the 2018 election campaign by raising donations. In return, he wanted to "benevolently consider" the interests of Awo Frankfurt. Feldmann rejects the allegations and emphasized several times: "I'm not corrupt."
The SPD politician was elected mayor of the largest city in Hesse in 2012 and was confirmed in office for another six years in 2018. At the beginning of last week, after massive pressure from his own party, Feldmann announced his resignation - but not until the end of January. In doing so, he wanted to save the city of Frankfurt "an agonizing and expensive vote-out procedure," as stated in a written statement.
