Mike Josef is the new mayor of Frankfurt: In the runoff, the SPD politician received around 52 percent of the votes, Becker got 48 percent. Voter turnout is 35 percent. This is the preliminary result after counting the 575 constituencies.
In the first ballot, the 40-year-old Josef was in second place with 24 percent, ten percentage points behind the CDU candidate Uwe Becker. The support of the Greens voters, who had voted for the Greens Manuela Rottmann in the first ballot, was also decisive. Rottmann had achieved 21 percent of the votes in the first ballot.
Josef follows the former Social Democrat Peter Feldmann, who was voted out by the citizens in November after the AWO scandal and various affairs. It was the first deselection of a mayor in Frankfurt. The scandal surrounding workers’ welfare, which involves, among other things, the acceptance of benefits by officials, became an issue again shortly before the run-off election because the head of the municipal main office was accused of corruption.
Becker: Josef should end “standstill”.
On the evening of the election, Josef announced that he wanted to be “Mayor of all Frankfurters” and would also build bridges to those who had not voted for him. He will deal with the close result “with humility”. “The old chapter is closed, we’re going to start a new one,” he added, to the shouts of “Mike, Mike” from his followers.
Already at 7.25 p.m. the election loser Becker congratulated the winner Josef on his success. Now Josef has the task of ending the “standstill” in Frankfurt’s local politics, Becker said to the applause of his supporters in the Römer. During the election campaign, the 53-year-old Union politician campaigned for a “fresh start” in city politics.
How the result of the mayoral election will affect the cooperation in the city council and the magistrate was still unclear on Sunday evening. Head of the Mobility Department Stefan Majer (Die Grünen) expressed his delight at Josef’s success. “We have had a catastrophic leadership deficit at the top of the city for long enough,” he said, referring to the former mayor, Peter Feldmann (SPD), who was voted out. With Joseph as mayor, the prospects are good that the coalition agreement of the Roman alliance can be put into practice.
Consequences for state elections
The FDP parliamentary group leader Yanki Pürsün made a similar statement. From an extremely exciting election campaign, everyone involved would have gained new insights for working in the coalition, he said. He expects a smooth continuation of the alliance under the new mayor, without any breaks.
The Frankfurt decision is also of national political importance. A new state parliament is elected in Hesse in October; the SPD hopes that Josef’s victory will give their prime ministerial candidate, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, a boost in motivation. The election of Mike Josef, who was born in Syria, is great proof of Frankfurt’s internationality, shows what immigrants can achieve in Germany and means tailwind for the state elections, said Faeser, who came to Römer. By electing Josef, the people of Frankfurt had shown that they wanted social politics. They would have voted for a city “where you can afford the rent, where all children have the same opportunities at school, where it doesn’t matter where you come from”.
The article has been supplemented with votes and reactions.