Parliament - Free Voters reposition themselves: Schwab Chairman
Three years after making their first entry into the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament, the Free Voters faction is undergoing a comprehensive personnel change. Helge Schwab, who was previously the deputy, will take over as the new faction chairman. He will succeed Joachim Streit in mid-July, who is moving to the European Parliament. Another well-known face of the Free Voters is moving at least to the back of the ranks in the faction. After losing out in the vote for the new leader on Friday, Stephan Wefelscheid will step down as parliamentary business manager at the end of June. Lisa-Marie Jeckel will take over from him.
The handover at the top of the faction from Streit to Schwab will take place in mid-July. Streit, who is also deputy federal chairman of the Free Voters, will lay down his mandate as a Rhineland-Palatinate parliamentarian on July 15. New deputy faction chairman will be Patrick Kunz, who will succeed Schwab at the helm. Bernhard Alscher, mayor of the Birkenfeld Association, is set to succeed Streit as an MP in Mainz. He was asked if he would accept the vacant Landtag mandate, according to a statement from the faction.
There have been rumors in the faction
The Birkenfeld District Association had reportedly called on Streit in writing to resign his Mandate in Mainz and also give up the faction leadership. In the meantime, there had been speculation that Streit wanted to hold both mandates - in Mainz and Brussels - in parallel and initially remain at the top of the faction.
Streit said on Friday that the letter from Birkenfeld had not contributed to a positive atmosphere. Some had expressed the wish that he should continue until January, as the budget negotiations in the state were not yet completed. A dual mandate was not an option for him, even if he would not have received any money for the Rhineland-Palatinate mandate. Against a dual mandate spoke only the fact that many sessions of both parliaments often coincided in time.
Wefelscheid, who was a big loser in the leadership election in the Landtagsfraktion, is also the state chairman of the Free Voters. He had wanted to become faction leader and was long considered the heir apparent to Streit in case of his departure. Wefelscheid was not only one of the central figures in building the faction, but also made a name for himself as an energetic chairman of the investigative committee on the Ahrtal flood disaster.
Looking back on the Federal Party Congress in Bitburg
Recently, there had also been criticism from within the faction about his handling style. The Bundesparteitag of the Free Voters in February in Bitburg caused a stir when, apart from Wefelscheid and Streit, all four Rhineland-Palatinate MPs - that is, Schwab, Jeckel, Kunz, and Herbert Drumm - voted against a cooperation ban with the AfD. In total, this cooperation ban received 92 percent support from the Free Voters at the time.
The four Rhineland-Palatinate MPs had explained their behavior in Bitburg with inhaltlichen Arguments against the specific proposal from Wefelscheid's Koblenz District Association. They supported an additional proposal that excluded cooperation with extreme political forces on the left and right spectrum. This proposal came from the Birkenfeld District Association.
Selection for the Parliamentary Business Manager (PGF) of the Free Voters (FW) party, Wefelscheid did not appear on Friday, nor did he do so on the same day, as he began packing PGF office files into moving boxes. He will, however, remain a member of the faction and state chairman of the Free Voters.
Wefelscheid: "I didn't have a majority"
Wefelscheid told the German Press Agency: "I didn't have a majority in the faction, which I regret." However, this had no impact on his role as state party chairman. He is the state party chairman and will remain so. Released from the administrative duties of a Parliamentary Business Manager, he now has more time for substantive work.
Schwab named regaining entry into the Landtag in 2026 as the central goal in his new role. Striving for a government participation is also desired, which he intends to achieve with the other deputies. Until 2026, the faction must demonstrate that it can work without conflict. It must deliver "clean and solid work."
Regarding his departure from Mainz and the election results, Streit stated that it was a good thing. Schwab is an officer. "He knows what leadership means." The party needs someone like Wefelscheid outside of the faction. With Schwab, a "North Line Bitburg-Coblenz" will come into a central position, which is indeed positive. So far, there has been an "North Line Bitburg-Coblenz" dynamic between him and Wefelscheid. Streit was previously Landrat of the Eifelkreis Bitburg-Prüm.
The spokesperson for the FW faction, Sabine Bätzing-Lichtenthaler, spoke of a new face for the FW faction and congratulated Schwab and Jeckel. "I hope that they will maintain the clear distinction against the far-right wing, as it was previously embodied by Parliamentary Business Manager Stephan Wefelscheid," she stated. This will be monitored in the coming parliamentary work.
Statement of the FW faction
- Helge Schwab, who currently serves as the deputy in the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament, will take over as the new faction chairman for the Free Voters, replacing Joachim Streit who is moving to the European Parliament in mid-July.
- Streit, who is also the deputy federal chairman of the Free Voters, will relinquish his Rhineland-Palatinate parliamentarian mandate on July 15.
- The new deputy faction chairman will be Patrick Kunz, who will assume leadership from Schwab once he moves to Brussels.
- Bernhard Alscher, the mayor of the Birkenfeld Association, is set to replace Streit as an MP in Mainz, having been asked to take on the vacant Landtag mandate by the Free Voters faction.
- There have been rumors that Streit was asked by the Birkenfeld District Association to resign his Mandate in Mainz and give up the faction leadership.
- The Free Voters recently faced criticism during the Federal Party Congress in Bitburg for voting against a cooperation ban with the AfD, with all four Rhineland-Palatinate MPs voting against Wefelscheid's proposal.
