Because of a suspected racist comment, Tübingen's Lord Mayor Palmer is said to be excluded from the Greens.
Now the politician is fighting back.
Tübingen - Tübingen's Lord Mayor Boris Palmer has been waiting for the exclusion application from the Greens in Baden-Württemberg for more than six months.
The mayor election in Tübingen is imminent next year.
Now Palmer is defending himself - and is taking action against the state association of Greens.
At a party congress in early May, the Greens decided to initiate party regulatory proceedings against Palmer.
The specific occasion was a Facebook post by Palmer about the former German national soccer player Dennis Aogo, in which the mayor used the so-called N-word.
This term is used today to describe a racist term used in Germany for black people.
The OB asserted that his statement was meant ironically.
Greens: Tübingen's mayor Boris Palmer turns the tables and complains about delaying tactics
Now Boris Palmer is going on the offensive in the dispute over his threatened exclusion from the Greens: Palmer's lawyer Rezzo Schlauch demanded that the state arbitration commission in Baden-Württemberg formally state that the party against Palmer “has no legal claim to exclusion from the party”. Palmer had sent the panel a so-called negative declaration request. As his lawyer announced on Wednesday (November 10th), an alleged legal claim can be rejected - in this case the right to expulsion from the party.
In addition, Palmer's lawyer criticized the delay in the proceedings: The tactics of the Greens are causing his client permanent damage to his public reputation and denying him the chance to defend him because no concrete accusation is being brought forward, he stressed.
This is particularly unfortunate against the background of the upcoming OB elections.
The delay should drag the process as far as possible into the OB candidate nomination phase of the Greens in Tübingen, hose accused the party.
Palmer worries about mayor - the state association of the Greens is calm
Unlike in previous elections, Palmer is not the only Green candidate who wants to run for mayor election: After the dispute over Palmer's party membership, the current mayor in the Weilheim district of Tübingen, Ulrike Baumgärtner, threw her hat into the ring. In April, the members of the city association will decide who will run for the party in the university city.
Meanwhile, the green national association reacted calmly to Palmer's advance.
“The trial was not delayed.
One reason for the time-consuming preparation in this case is the long history.
It is a long list of provocative and inappropriate statements and actions that have occurred over the years and which are currently being carefully compiled with regard to the party regulation process, ”said a party spokesman when asked by the German press agency.
(dpa / sf)