Media reports - Palmer to join the Free Voters Association in future?
Tübingen's Lord Mayor Boris Palmer intends to campaign for the Free Voters Association (FWV) in the district of Tübingen in the local elections in Baden-Württemberg in June 2024. The FWV and Palmer intend to provide details and background information at a press conference on Monday (9.00 am). On Sunday, Palmer himself did not want to comment on whether he would stand on a list for the association in the next local elections. Instead, he referred to the press conference.
The parliamentary group leader of the Free Voters Association in the district of Tübingen, Thomas Hölsch, told dpa: "We hope that our colleague Boris Palmer, if he joins our list and runs for constituency 1(Tübingen), will also be electable by people who do not come from his original green milieu due to his high profile".
As spokesman for the mayors in the Tübingen district and chairman of the district association of the Gemeindetag, he has had official dealings with Palmer. A year and a half ago, he had already signaled to Palmer that he would be welcome to join the association if he was considering running for the district council.
Palmer then approached him before the summer vacation and said that he could imagine running for the association in the next district council election, said Hölsch. After the summer vacation, Palmer came to the parliamentary group meeting and expressed his wish and explained his motives. "And the parliamentary group welcomed him joining our list and told him yes, if you want to come, you are very welcome."
Palmer's involvement in the district council as mayor of the largest city is an advantage. Because the special thing about Baden-Württemberg is that the cities and municipalities co-finance the district's tasks via the district levy. "And there are tendencies in the Tübingen district council that say we don't care how the towns and municipalities fare financially afterwards. The district must be financed accordingly."
On average, the district levy accounts for a good third of the total income of all districts and is therefore a significant source of revenue. It is levied by the administrative districts on the municipalities belonging to the district to cover their financial requirements. The district council is responsible for setting the district levy.
In Baden-Württemberg, the Free Voters' Associations represented by the Baden-Württemberg Free Voters' Association have been the strongest local political force in the municipal councils and the second strongest local political force in the district councils for many years. It deals with all local political issues such as schools, transport and housing.
The Freie Wähler Vereinigung (FWV) has nothing to do with the Freie Wähler party, Hölsch told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur on Sunday evening. The FWV was founded in the 1950s. After the Federal Association of Free Voters was constituted in 2010, the FWV wanted to have the name "Freie Wähler" protected because it feared a possible risk of confusion as harmful to itself. However, the Nuremberg-Fürth Regional Court ruled against this in 2010. As a result, the Federal Association of Free Voters was allowed to continue using the term "Freie Wähler" in the future.
Palmer (51) has been Lord Mayor of Tübingen since 2007. He won his third term in office as head of the town hall in October last year as an independent candidate in the mayoral elections. In May of this year, the politician resigned from the Green Party following a scandal over the use of the N-word at a migration conference in Frankfurt. His membership had already been suspended due to some provocative statements. He took a month's sabbatical in June. He also sought professional help to come to terms with the events in Frankfurt and his part in them.
Information on the Free Voters in the district of Tübingen Information on the state association of the Free Voters of Baden-Württemberg
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Source: www.stern.de
