Frankfurt/Main (dpa/lhe) - The Frankfurt planning department head Mike Josef is running for the SPD in the race to succeed the deselected mayor Peter Feldmann. "I found happiness in Frankfurt and I want to give some of this happiness back," said the 39-year-old in Frankfurt on Friday. The election is scheduled for March next year. Feldmann, who also belongs to the SPD, was voted out in a referendum on Sunday.
The subdistrict board of the Frankfurt SPD had unanimously proposed Josef as a candidate on Thursday evening. He is to be officially nominated at a special party conference on December 3rd. Josef gave up the chair of the Frankfurt SPD with immediate effect after ten years. Kolja Müller and Ina Hartwig are to hold the office temporarily until the next regular party conference in 2023. Josef said he was running as a social democrat, "but I want to be the mayor of all Frankfurters."
Josef is "the right candidate at the right time," said Hartwig. He is young, has a history of migration and can thus represent "today's Frankfurt". Joseph was born in Syria. "When I came to Germany with my parents in 1987, we thought of many things, but not that I would one day have to decide whether I wanted to run for mayor of Germany's fifth largest city." He decided to run "because I can and because I want to".
Social cohesion in the city is particularly important to him. Frankfurt must continue to “remain socially, fairly and economically strong and give people security”. Former mayor and treasurer Uwe Becker is to run for the CDU. On November 19, the Frankfurt Greens want to discuss the question of who to put up as a candidate.
