Mayor Madsen declares resignation: "Not all projects" are over

Created: 06/28/2022Updated: 06/28/2022 15:49

Claus Ruhe Madsen (independent), former mayor of the Hanseatic city of Rostock.

© Marcus Brandt/dpa

When Claus Ruhe Madsen took office in 2019, he received a lot of advance praise.

Now he is leaving the Rostock town hall and does not mention an important project by name in the summary.

Rostock - Almost three years after taking office, Rostock's Mayor Claus Ruhe Madsen (independent) has announced his resignation.

"With my appointment as minister in Schleswig-Holstein, my appointment as a civil servant in the Hanseatic and university city of Rostock will end tomorrow," Madsen was quoted as saying in a personal statement distributed by the city on Tuesday.

"I will continue to be connected to Rostock."

The 49-year-old Dane Madsen, who has been the first foreign mayor to lead a German city since the end of August 2019, is to be sworn in as Economics Minister of the future state government of Schleswig-Holstein on Wednesday.

He will also be responsible for transport, work, technology and tourism in the cabinet of Prime Minister Daniel Günther (CDU).

Madsen called it a tough decision.

He found a second home in Rostock in 1998.

He has known and appreciated Günther for over a year.

The change was preceded by a personal call a few days ago.

Going to Schleswig-Holstein, which borders Denmark, is "a return to the roots, geographically and in terms of content."

Günther said on Monday that he had had several exciting encounters with Madsen in recent years - for example with the Danish queen.

They also have a similar understanding of political style.

Madsen was the first mayor of a major German city without German citizenship.

He is leaving the Hanseatic city a few days after the end of the Federal Garden Show 2025, which was intended to promote the development of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's largest city.

Rostock was awarded the contract for the major project in 2018, but the planning and implementation for the many buildings made little progress.

Madsen recently pointed out that Buga was no longer feasible due to the enormous increase in the cost of all projects as a result of the corona pandemic and the Ukraine war, but also admitted to internal errors.

"We weren't able to solve all the problems, we weren't able to complete all the projects," Madsen explained, without naming the Federal Horticultural Show.

He spoke of a readjustment and a plan presented a few days ago for the implementation of the major projects.

State and city had recently identified five major projects, the construction of which will be the focus of the coming years.

These include the Archaeological State Museum (ALM), the bridge over the Warnow and the new building of the Volkstheater.

After a successful and unconventional election campaign, the Dane started his new office with many advance praise.

But he didn't have much time to calmly implement his plans: After a good four months in office, the corona pandemic demanded everything from him.

His reputation as a doer quickly spread, and Madsen became a regular guest on TV talk shows.

Madsen wrote in his statement on Tuesday that he was pleased to have contributed to the positive perception of the city as "foreign minister".

The outgoing Mayor referred, among other things, to progress in digitization in the Hanseatic city or to the settlement of the Customs University and the Ocean Technology Campus.

He thanked the people of the city, their facilities and the administration.

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The unsolved problems in the city were piling up recently and the head of the town hall was confronted with an administration that was less and less friendly towards him.

His ideas, which often could not be reconciled with the procedures of an administration that proceeded with clear legal steps, increasingly isolated him.

New elections are now imminent in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's largest city - probably shortly before the statutory deadline of the end of November.

In the meantime, Madsen will be represented by Finance Senator Chris von Wrycz Rekowski (SPD) as first and Social Senator Steffen Bockhahn (left) as second deputy.

dpa