According to information from Tagesspiegel, the mayor of the Mitte district, Stefan von Dassel (the Greens), wants to keep his post despite his parliamentary group calling for his resignation. Von Dassel was heavily criticized for several days over the issue regarding the potential impact on a vacancy in the district office. The pressure increased on Monday evening – this time from within our ranks.
In an extraordinary meeting, the Parliamentary Greens group in the Mitte County Council (BVV) voted to call on von Dassel to resign. If the mayor does not voluntarily comply, the parliamentary group wants to submit a motion for a vote or support another group’s motion for a vote out of office. The majority voted for him.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Parliamentary Group and the District Council issued public statements about the operation for the first time. According to a press release, they will now “talk to Mr. von Dassel” about the outcome of the vote.
Later in the evening, the center of the SPD faction decided in a private session to ask von Dassel to resign. SPD and Greens provide the district mayor in the census community.
In the event that the mayor does not resign, the parliamentary group has decided to initiate voting procedures with the local community partner in the census or support the impeachment request, according to a press release from the parliamentary group.
According to the SPD parliamentary group, they dealt extensively with the allegations in two private sessions and gave Dassel the opportunity to comment on the allegations in person.
“He admitted mistakes and explained his motives for what we considered an unacceptable offer of private compromise in the region’s hiring process. However, his explanations were not sufficient to restore the necessary confidence in his administration of office,” said Parliamentary Group Leader Susan Fisher and Dorothea Riddell.
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Mayor Franziska Jaffe (Social Democrats) made clear on Tuesday that the allegations were not simple. “Based on the documents presented by Mr. von Dassel, it cannot be excluded that he has violated his official duties as a civil servant of the State of Berlin. This means that the initiation of disciplinary proceedings is obligatory.”
Influential Supporters of the Neighborhood Association
Von Dassel is closer than ever to the end of his political career in the Mitte region. But the end is not over yet. Despite the allegations against him, the district mayor can count on influential supporters in his district assembly. Even before Monday’s parliamentary group meeting, the Central District Executive had written an internal partisan position.
“We welcome the consensual approach taken by the mayor and the ruling mayor to investigate possible misconduct by initiating disciplinary action in the Senate Chancellery in an impartial manner,” says the resolution, available to Tagesspiegel. It is now “a process under the Service Act, we are waiting for the test result”.
Trust is no longer
This batch was supposed to get the group in line – but it failed. After a three-hour meeting, members voted against their district mayor by a slim majority of eight to six with three abstentions.
Decisive in a single pull request SMS from Dassels that became known last weekend the plaintiff in the recruitment process. It indicates, reportedly, that the county mayor was willing to pay special money to pay his preferred candidate. The faction says the case has a “crazy taste”. Trust no longer exists.
Clearly, the current issue is only the trigger for a much deeper conflict to escalate into the county league once again. The Greens at Mitte have been deeply divided for years. In addition to the left-wing groups “Bunt-Grün” and Green Youth, the neighborhood association is dominated by two streams of Realo – who are in turn violently at odds.
deep trenches
The highlight of the dispute so far has been the formations elected for the local elections in 2020. At that time, the more moderate Realo wing reached an agreement with “Bunt-Grün”: Reala Hannah Steinmüller should become a direct candidate for the Bundestag with her votes, and Thilo Seeauer a mayoral candidate Green Party in Mitte.
But in the decisive vote at Poststadion in Moabit, von Dassel narrowly beat his rival in a fight vote. It was later said that former MP Ozkan Mutlu showed up with 40 previously inactive members and rescued von Dassel. According to the faction, the case from Poststadion also played a role in the vote against von Dassel.
It is said that Timur Olof was a supporter of Mutlu at that time. “The Radical Real”, as the members of the more bourgeois current internally called, later organized the election campaign of von Dassel. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Green Center. In the present case, he is implicated in two ways: Ohloff was initially given the highly paid position in the Mitte district office, by which von Dassel wanted to dissuade the losing competitor from his lawsuit with a cash payment.
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Anyway, the district mayor is about to submit the vote. The CDU and the region’s FDP announced Monday that a special meeting of the BVV will be held to submit the application. Despite Monday’s vote, it is unclear how the Greens will vote.
According to the party, it is possible that those members who voted to resign within the group will also do so in the BVV. The rest can continue to cling to Von Dassel. It is unclear how the SPD will act. The Green Party leadership remains silent. In response to a question by Tagesspiegel, Heads of State Susan Mertens and Philemon Germay did not want to comment on the issue. Former nominee Bettina Garsch said nothing despite the request.
