In the debate about a possible successor to Mitte’s district mayor, Stephan von Dassel (Greens), Silke Gebel, the leader of the Greens parliamentary group in the House of Representatives from Mitte, declared that she was not interested in the post. “I am very happy to be the leader of the parliamentary group and take responsibility at the state level,” Gebel told the Tagesspiegel.
There had previously been rumors that the prominent and powerful representative from the Mitte district association could take over the position if the current district mayor of Dassel was likely to be voted out or resigned.
However, this would only have been possible under the condition that the Greens could continue to have three members in the district office. That is currently considered unlikely, because after the election, district councilor Ingrid Bertermann left the parliamentary group in the district parliament and switched to the Greens.
With 17 seats, the Greens would probably only be entitled to two more posts if the district office were to be filled. They would lose the third to the SPD, which would then also have two city councillors. The party is currently having the district supervisory authority check whether the previous distribution can be retained.
If the Greens only have two posts in the future, one of the two remaining current members – school councilor Stefanie Remlinger or transport councilor Almut Neumann – is likely to take over the office.
In this case, Remlinger is considered a more promising candidate. It is said in the party that she does not have any great ambitions for the office. But the party expects her to take over the post. Compared to Almut Neumann, the former deputy leader of the Greens in the House of Representatives is much more experienced.
Neumann, on the other hand, only began her political career last fall. Previously she was an administrative judge. Another argument in favor of Remlinger is that the Greens would otherwise lose the post of transport councilor that is so important for the party. From the point of view of the Greens, this is of the greatest importance in the self-imposed goals for the traffic turnaround in Berlin.
After von Dassel was accused of trying to intervene in a recruitment process in the district by offering a private payment, the Greens in the district called for the district mayor to resign. In the meantime, SPD, Left, CDU and FDP von Dassel are also calling for this step. Otherwise he faces being voted out at a special session of the district council on September 8th.
