The local elections were in 2020, it is half-time in the Geretsried city council.
There have been changes in the past three years - not only due to the corona pandemic.
Geretsried – Everything is as usual in the large meeting room of the town hall.
The city councilors sit next to each other in a circle, Mayor Michael Müller has support from all areas of the administration and if someone wants a coffee during the meeting, he gets up and gets one.
Halftime in the city council in Geretsried: Corona and many changes
This normality almost makes you forget that in the year of the 2020 local elections, suddenly nothing was the same as usual.
The state of emergency accompanied the city councilors until last summer.
And even then, many a meeting participant still had an FFP2 mask in front of their mouth and nose from time to time.
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Courage for an individual mask: Ewald Kailberth.
© Hans Lippert
When 20,284 residents of Geretsried were asked to go to the ballot box in March 2020, the city council that had been in office until then worked in a much smaller form.
Key word: holiday committee.
There was a two-shift system in the town hall, and in various places plexiglass screens separated you from those sitting next to you or across from you.
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Courage for an individual mask: Gerhard Meinl.
© Hans Lippert
Half-time review in the city council in Geretsried: election party was canceled due to Corona
The mayoral candidates (CSU: incumbent Michael Müller, Greens: Martina Raschke, SPD: Wolfgang Werner, FDP: Larry Terwey) had to wait for the results in a manageable circle.
An election party would have been appropriate, at least for the old and new mayor.
With 62.15 percent, he secured his second term in the first run.
"A dream result," he enthused.
The joy was also great among the new group, which got three seats on the city council from the start.
The former CSU city councilor Volker Reeh was no longer put on the list by his party after disagreements with Müller.
The Geretsrieder list then formed around him, in which Patrik Kohlert and Dr.
Elmar Immertreu found sharp critics of the design of the "New Center".
The Greens were also able to win (from three to five seats).
The SPD lost (from six to four) and the Free Voters (eight to five).
The FDP held its seat, the CSU its 13 mandates.
Voter turnout in Geretsried was poor at 46.29 percent.
With Peter Curtius (Greens) and Felix Leipold (Free Voters), former youth councilors moved to the adult committee for the first time.
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Courage for an individual mask: Hans Hopfner.
© Hans Lippert
The city council will be reorganized after the 2020 local elections in Geretsried
The constitutive meeting was not only unusual for the eight newly elected.
The 23 re-elected city councilors also had to adapt.
In order to be able to keep distances, the town hall moved the meeting from the proven hall to the council chambers.
Instead of sitting elbow to elbow, everyone had their own table.
There was no apple or currant juice, but rhubarb spritzer and cola.
And the faces were adorned with mouth and nose covers, at that time self-made from fabric.
The SPD would have liked to continue to provide the vice mayor with Hans Hopfner.
However, the committee elected Sonja Frank (free voters) and again third mayor Gerhard Meinl (CSU).
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Courage for an individual mask: Volker Reeh.
© Hans Lippert
The committee met in the alternative quarters for two years.
There was no routine at all.
The first resigned his mandate at the second meeting.
Larry Terwey, who had won 1,658 votes as a mayoral candidate, moved away from Geretsried and handed over the FDP seat to Edmund Häner.
Eight months later, the Greens were not green: Peter Curtius surprisingly replaced Martina Raschke as parliamentary group leader.
As a candidate for the chief post, she received the most votes in the local elections after Michael Müller (5652).
Your deputy Dr.
Detlev Ringer was defeated by his successor Beate Paulerberg in the “grassroots democratic decision” (Curtius).
Raschke then declared her withdrawal from the party, but remained in the parliamentary group.
City Council Geretsried: Interplay in the factions
The next crisis was looming in the Free Voters/FDP faction group.
At the beginning of 2021, Dominik Irmer, who was the top voter in his group in the local elections with 3994 points, gave up his mandate for personal Greens.
Ann-Kathrin Güner replaced him.
Irmer's parliamentary group chair was taken over by Heiko Hawla.
The group community, which was largely due to Terwey and Irmer, lasted another year.
Then the Free Voters canceled their cooperation with Häner.
He spoke of being "thrown out" and has now joined forces with the Geretsrieder list.
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At half-time in the city council, the speakers of the parties will be speaking in our newspaper in the near future.
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