FDP members overthrow chairman – new dual leadership
Created: 05/27/2022, 11:02 am
By: Peter Schiebel
Leadership duo at the Starnberg FDP: Stefan W. Zeil and city councilor Anke Henniger.
© Andrea Jakschs
The Starnberg FDP has replaced its leadership - and in a turbulent meeting lasting several hours.
The line now has dual leadership.
Starnberg
– The Starnberg FDP is now headed by a dual leadership.
The 37-year-old lawyer Stefan W. Zeil and the 56-year-old city councilor Anke Henniger were elected as equal chairmen in the local general assembly of the Liberals on Tuesday evening in the "Strandhouse" in the seaside resort.
Zeil was ahead in a contest vote against incumbent Marc Fiedler (44) with 18:16 votes.
In the ballot that followed, Henniger, who had no opposing candidate, also received 18 votes – just one more than required.
13 members voted "No".
The election of the two chairmen was the highlight of an almost four-hour meeting, which all participants should not soon forget.
The results also made it clear how deeply divided the Starnberg FDP is.
The prelude: "The way was not easy"
Fiedler was confirmed in office at a general meeting in November.
In retrospect, however, these results were invalid (we reported).
Members had criticized that the chairman had invited to the meeting in the middle of the pandemic and therefore not all members who wanted to come actually came.
They appealed to the party arbitration court.
On Tuesday, Fiedler spoke of a "stupidly formal error" that he had made.
As a result of the November meeting, a long-simmering conflict between him and his deputy Henniger, the two FDP city councillors, came to light, which led to the end of the FDP faction in the city council.
"The way here was not easy," said district chairwoman Britta Hundesrügge in her welcome.
She hopes for a “joint restart in the Starnberg local association”.
And: "Let's not allow our opponents to tear each other apart." Hundesrügge apparently already knew what was to come.
The start: Peaceful at first, then strange
The first discussion was critical, but still peaceful.
It was about the question of whether it is legal for FDP members to belong to the Starnberg local branch, even though they don't live in Starnberg at all.
Yes, under certain conditions this is possible, explained the chairmen of the meeting, Max Gawlik and Daniel Reuter, with reference to the statutes.
Hundesrügge had asked the two FDP officials from Munich and Rosenheim to go to Starnberg so as not to let any hint of partisanship arise.
Treasurer Philipp Morgenstern's report was curious.
He was only elected in the November meeting, and his predecessor has since left the FDP.
So Morgenstern, as he said, “fought” his way through the numbers from 2019 and 2020 along with Daniel Reuter.
However, a discharge was not possible because there was no complete cash check for the entire period.
One cash auditor, Heike Barall-Quiring, is on a trip lasting several months, Morgenstern said.
The other auditor, Manfred Leipold, has only been in office since November.
After all, since then there have been "no complaints," he said.
The mud fight: Many against the boss
Once peaceful, once strange, then it got dirty.
Former party chairman Hans-Peter Tauche attacked Fiedler because he considered his report to be too short.
He wanted to know how many and which applications the FDP had made in the city council.
How many information events there were for the members.
And: whether it is true that the chairman was represented in the arbitration by a lawyer from another city council faction.
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Fiedler spoke of "ten to twelve applications", three online and one face-to-face event for the members - and rejected Tauche's accusation with a "very decisive no".
“That is an assumption.” He was represented by a lawyer from Munich who was neither a member of the FDP nor any other group.
And he also "paid him privately," says Fiedler.
Andreas Henniger, husband of Fiedler's opponent, didn't let it go.
He knew "relatively sure" that Fiedler had spoken to a member of the Starnberg building committee about the internal party issue, he said.
"This person did not offer me any service," Fiedler replied.
The board of directors also denied other allegations.
"That's a lie," Henniger said.
"I reject that," Fiedler replied.
FDP honorary member Rainer Hange also criticized Fiedler.
This has communicated far too little with the members in the past two years, said Hange.
"The criticism is partly true," admitted Fiedler, referring to the pandemic and a party executive committee that has meanwhile shrunk to three members.
The interjection: "Am I still correct here?"
Stefan Engels reported that he had only been a member of the FDP for two weeks.
"And I've been thinking to myself for two hours: am I actually in the right party?" External members, cash audits that didn't take place - "that's really special".
The reconciliation: No chance from the start
"I'm also horrified at what I've gotten myself into here," agreed Philipp Morgenstern.
As a kind of reconciliation proposal, the treasurer suggested electing two equal chairmen, namely the two city councillors, i.e. Marc Fiedler and Anke Henniger.
"It must not happen that there are battle votes here," said Morgenstern.
The idea of having a dual leadership was accepted unanimously a short time later, but the proposal for personnel was not.
"I consider that almost unthinkable," said Viggo von Wietersheim.
The showdown: two applicants, one goal
The first round of the presidential election was about the question: Marc Fiedler (proposed by Philipp Morgenstern) or Stefan W. Zeil (proposed by Rainer Hange)?
"We have to work together, even if we overlap thematically," appealed Fiedler.
Zeil, on the other hand, conjured up an “organizational, content-related and personnel new beginning”.
Above all, he wanted to involve the members much more.
Striking: In his speech, which he read from the paper, he said "Anke (Henniger, editor's note) and I" several times.
The freak: A man takes measurements
During Fiedler's speech, many of those present held their breath for a moment.
Andreas Henniger stormed from his seat across the hall, straight towards Fiedler, only to turn towards the toilet at the last moment.
That was not intentional, he said later.
Co-chair Gawlik urged mutual respect and warned: "We'll start right away with calls for order."
The results: everything is new on the board
18:16 for Zeil, in the second ballot a majority for Henniger.
Three deputies were elected: Anka Schuler, Dietrich von Witzleben (25 yes votes each), and Julian Fetoski (20 yes votes).
The new treasurer is Viggo von Wietersheim (21 yes votes), assessors are Philipp Morgenstern, Jasmin Dufford and Christian Finke.
The closing words: Two signals to the end
He now wants to "send the signal that the FDP Starnberg is back," said the new co-chairman Zeil.
Fiedler did not comment publicly at the end, but he did tell Starnberger Merkur that he would "of course" keep his seat on the city council.
He was finally elected for the FDP, said Fiedler, who took over the local presidency in 2019 and was also the Liberal mayoral candidate in the 2020 local elections.
