Apart from Tübingen, the Greens are increasingly losing out in important town hall elections in the state. They had once intended to rule in the communes. Prime Minister Kretschmann writes his party something in the log.
Stuttgart/Berlin (dpa/lsw) – After a series of defeats in mayoral elections, Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann advises the Baden-Württemberg Greens to rethink their strategy. “You really have to want a majority, that’s the only way you’ll get it,” Kretschmann told the daily “taz” (Thursday). His party shouldn’t just build on its own clientele either: “Then you have to know that a majority is above the potential that you normally get in elections,” said the head of government. “So you have to tell people: I want to be your mayor and take responsibility for our city with you. And not: I want to make your city green.”
Most recently, after the town halls in Freiburg and Stuttgart, the Greens also lost the mayoral election in green-dominated Heidelberg and continued the municipal weakness in the home country. In addition to Böblingen and Göppingen, the eco-party is also the mayor in Tübingen. The state party wanted to get rid of Boris Palmer, the head of the city hall for many years. “I can only advise my party to think about it thoroughly,” said Kretschmann. “We may be the strongest faction in 69 municipalities, but we hardly manage to organize majorities that are needed for a mayoral election.”
However, he ruled out that the Greens lack charismatic personalities. “No one will believe that all 1,100 mayors and mayors in Baden-Württemberg are charismatic personalities,” said the head of government. “With all due respect, that’s not the case.”
