Even after his sovereign election victory in Tübingen, the Greens did not accept their quarrelsome comrade again with open arms. There is a tight-lipped congratulations from Stuttgart, and a derailment on Twitter from Berlin. Palmer himself is forgiving.
After the re-election of Tübingen Mayor Boris Palmer, a Berlin Green MP caused unrest with an AfD comparison. "With Boris Palmer, Germany now has its first AfD mayor. Sad!" wrote the Berlin Greens domestic politician Vasili Franco on Twitter. Shortly thereafter, he deleted the tweet and instead wrote: "It's 2022 and racism is still not an exclusion criterion." When asked, Franco said he did not want to further fuel the debate and would not comment further on the subject publicly. Palmer's party membership in the Greens is suspended because of arguments about breaking taboos and allegations of racism.
Palmer was elected mayor for another eight years on Sunday evening. According to the city, Palmer received 52.4 percent of the votes, and the turnout was unusually high at just under 63 percent. After his election victory, Palmer said: "A democracy in which there is no dispute is not one". He quoted the deceased former Social Democratic Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. "I think the negative evaluation of the word dispute is a serious mistake," said Palmer. "I think this party should argue."
Palmer did not run for the Greens but as an independent candidate. His party membership will be suspended until the end of 2023. On the morning after the election, the Greens state association reacted cautiously to the victory of the nationwide well-known mayor. Congratulations to Boris Palmer on re-election as mayor of Tübingen and thanks to Ulrike Baumgärtner for her dedicated campaign, a spokeswoman in Stuttgart said on request. With regard to the possible effects of the election on Palmer's dormant party membership, she referred to the party organization process that had already been completed and the talks agreed upon in the coming year.
The Green Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir was a little friendlier: "You can see it like this: Over 70% choose green in one way or another in Tübingen," Özdemir wrote on Twitter and congratulated Palmer. "As an ex-Tübingen resident, I wish the city a lot more eco
Hundreds of citizens gathered in front of City Hall on Sunday evening to watch the results being counted - and to congratulate Palmer. But boos could also be heard. "I admit that I would wish, when the election was over, that the result would not be greeted with boos. That's always an assessment of the other people who cast their votes," said Palmer after his victory. "But that was maybe 5 out of 500. There are always some that you don't understand."
Palmer addressed conciliatory words to his opponents the morning after the election: "Let's approach each other and shake hands after the argument," the 50-year-old wrote on his Facebook page. "The times ahead are hard enough." You can only overcome them if you are strong and united inside. He wants to make his contribution to this over the next eight years, says Palmer. He also thanked his supporters. "It's an unusual situation to go into an election campaign like this without a party behind you." His intention and his offer is to campaign for his party, to join and to uphold the values that are important to him. Ecology is the unifying bond of the Greens, which he will emphasize more in the future.
Palmer has been mayor for 16 years. He had declared in advance that he no longer wanted to compete in the second ballot if he was not ahead in the first round.
