Boris Palmer
Boris Erasmus Palmer ( born May 28, 1972 in Waiblingen ) is a German politician of the Green Party. He was from March 2001 to with May 2007, a deputy in the parliament of Baden -Württemberg and is since January 2007 Mayor of the university town of Tübingen.
- 2.4.1 Black - Green coalitions
- 2.4.2 Basic Income
- 2.4.3 Stuttgart 21
- 2.4.4 Coal Plant Brunsbuttel
Youth, education, work and family
Boris Palmer grew up in Geradstetten. He is a son of the fruit tree Kund Jewellers Helmut Palmer (1930-2004), the cross-regional notoriety as " Rems Rebel " earned as a non-party candidate in more than 250 municipal elections in Baden- Württemberg. Boris Palmer accompanied his father as a child often at its election campaigns. He is a cousin of the CDU politician Christoph Palmer, a former Member of Parliament, Minister of State, confidant of Prime Minister Erwin Teufel and district chairman of the CDU Stuttgart was.
After graduation in 1992 at the Waldorf School in Engelberg Boris Palmer refused to do military service and completed his community service at the Red Cross. Subsequently, he studied from 1993 to 1999 history and mathematics teaching at the University of Tübingen and in Sydney. He then worked as a research assistant for the fraction of the Alliance 90/The Greens in the Bundestag.
Palmer was romantically involved with the Green parliamentary deputies and Franziska Brantner MEP. He took one of the first Lord Mayor of Germany after the birth of their daughter in May 2010, from late August to early November 2010 for two months parental allowance and rested his office at this time. However, during this time he took part in the intensive mediation to Stuttgart 21, this earned him criticism. In October 2013 Palmer announced that he and Brantner have broken up, but it would stay out of the election campaign.
Political activity
During his studies, Palmer was active as a student representative. At university he was 1995-2000 student council secretary for environment and transport. During this time he developed a concept for the introduction of night buses in the room Tübingen, was implemented from April 1996, and participated in the introduction of the semester ticket with. Palmer called for trailing tuition fees in Baden- Württemberg.
Since 1996 Boris Palmer is a member of Alliance 90/The Greens. From 1997 to 2000 he was a member of the board of the Tübingen district association of his party. In November 2012 he won in the election for party council of the Alliance 90/The Greens last place and no longer belongs to the 16- member board to since then.
Member of Parliament
Palmer in 2001 was first elected to the state parliament of Baden -Württemberg, where he represented the electoral district of Tübingen on a second mandate. He was a member of the Committee on Environment and transport, and environmental and transport policy spokesman for the Alliance 90/The Greens. In this role, he was one of the most prominent critics of the transport and urban project Stuttgart 21
In the state elections in 2006 Palmer was re-elected MPs. In his constituency, he reached a vote share of 22.1 %, and the Greens were the second largest party for the first time here ahead of the SPD. Palmer was elected as one of three Vice Presidents, gave this function with the assumption of office as mayor of Tübingen but off again. On the 25th May 2007, he presented according to a decision taken before the Lord Mayor election announcement resigned his seat in Parliament.
Mayor elections in Stuttgart
In the fall of 2004, Palmer was chosen to be Green candidate for the office of Mayor of Stuttgart. In the first ballot on 10 October 2004 he reached a vote share of 21.5 %, which was 2.8 percentage points higher than the result of the Greens in the municipal elections held on 13 June 2004. Behind incumbent Wolfgang Schuster ( CDU) and Ute Kumpf (SPD ) both missed the required absolute majority of votes, Palmer was in third place and moved in the face of significant residue on the second-placed Ute Kumpf back his candidacy. With two competitors he held talks about possible substantive concessions. Here Schuster signaled unlike Kumpf a concession in six points, what Palmer then expounded in a public statement. Schuster explained, among other things, that a referendum on the controversial major project Stuttgart 21 in significant cost increases for the city was possible. Palmer's statements were interpreted for the second ballot on 24 October as an indirect recommendation to vote in favor of Schuster and provoked violent and controversial reactions. Many observers saw a reaction to the behavior of the Stuttgart SPD in the mayor elections in Stuttgart in 1996, when the third-placed in the first ballot SPD candidate Rainer Brechtken was not willing to withdraw his candidacy, thus possibly preventing an electoral victory of the Greens Rezzonico hose. After the Stuttgart Greens were the strongest party in the local council elections in June 2009, Palmer expressed his first interest in a renewed bid for the mayor of Stuttgart election in 2012, but announced in March 2010 to try to refrain from such a candidacy.
Mayor of Tübingen
On October 22, 2006 Palmer was elected mayor of Tübingen. As a challenger to the incumbent for eight years in office owner Brigitte Russ-Scherer (SPD ), he had already reached the first ballot with a vote share of 50.4 %, the required absolute majority. At Russ-Scherer accounted for 30.2 %, other candidates received a total of 19.4 %. The turnout was 51.6 %. Four and a half months after he took office, Palmer revealed the hint, always preferable to the active design option of the opposition in politics, his seat in Parliament down. For him, Ilka new house moved by the state parliament.
Boehringer project
Local media believes a major in the mayor election issue was in September of 2006 for the first time become project of the pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, which provided for the establishment of a site for animal vaccine research and the construction of an additional attempt livestock barn with its own animal body burning. Given staunch protests promised residents Palmer, to be carried out a referendum on this construction project. However, the company said before Palmer's office with reference to the level of public reaction and media coverage, not to pursue its settlement programs in need of planning security further and to look for another location.
School renovation
Following One of the first initiatives of Palmers after taking office decided the Tübingen council in 2007 to bring forward the originally planned for a later date energy-saving renovation of the Wildermuth Gymnasium. Calculations had previously shown that the time saved by reducing heating costs by 57% amount is higher than the cost of construction.
Caboose
Departure from normal practice in Baden-Württemberg municipalities declared Palmer in early 2007, to intend to use it as a company car an eco-friendly hybrid vehicle from a Japanese manufacturer. He argued with the low CO2 emissions of the vehicle and announced his intention to transfer immediately to a product of a local company, once a model with sufficiently favorable energy balance on the market is. Palmer put it in 2008 by switching to the model Smart Fortwo "micro hybrid drive" (in short: " MHD " ) around. The micro-car has no hybrid drive, but is equipped with a start -stop system. Palmer announced the lease but later replacement with reference to still too high fuel consumption and under-utilization. To the charge of the then Prime Minister Günther Oettinger to have committed with his choice of company car " treason ," Palmer replied, "I do not need a company car with 180 hp, I'm not even on the run. "
Local Climate Initiative
At Palmers policy objectives include, in particular the implementation and support of global climate change targets by local measures. So he holds a long-term reduction of CO2 emissions in Tübingen by 70 % by 2020 is possible. By 2010 he had formulated the goal of a ten percent less CO2 emissions. The individual measures that are intended to achieve these goals, in the campaign " Tübingen makes Blue " together.
Palmer was supported on 16 July 2009 Award of living in Tübingen journalist Felicia Langer with the Federal Cross of Merit, First Class, which led to a public controversy due to their position to the policies of Israel. Particularly the journalist Henryk M. Broder sharply criticized Palmer.
Inner-city traffic planning
With various projects Palmer intends to create by the transformation of the traffic space in Tübingen more space for pedestrians and cyclists. During the renovation of the Mill Road, one caused by the topography bottleneck in urban north-south traffic, but it was due to faulty planning to cost increases and disabilities of bus services, for which Palmer subsequently took over the political responsibility.
Commitment outside of Tübingen
" Increasingly, " Palmer is now being accused of not enough to Tübingen problems to worry about and instead interfere in the politics of other cities. So he solved with a Facebook - Comment on " Rail City " in Heidelberg from some reactions, even in the local local press ( RNZ ). A few days later criticized Palmer via Facebook, that the reactivation of tracks in the district of Calw " are in the stars " would.
Supposedly lack of privacy
As part of its Facebook presence Palmer was also accused of neglecting the Privacy Policy. The reason for this was that he photographed a probably wrong parked car and then abbildete with the complete license plate on Facebook. This led to extensive criticism of him and his handling of private data. Among other things, the focus here on under the headline "Facebook pillory: Green mayor told on illegal parking ". Palmer replied that according to recent judgments neither infringement of privacy yet there had been a intervention in personal rights.
Political positions
Unlike his fellow party Dieter Salomon ( Freiburg, Germany) and Horst Frank ( Constance), which are located as mayor of Baden-Württemberg university cities in a similar position, participates Boris Palmer regularly to basic and strategic debates within the federal party Alliance 90/The Greens. It is attributed to the real political wing of the party.
Black - Green coalitions
Palmer is considered proponents black - green coalitions. Before the Baden-Württemberg state election 2006, he supplemented this attitude by formulating substantive criteria by which such an alliance would have to be measured. The former Baden-Württemberg Minister President Stefan undersecretary Palmer stood in the face of socio-political positions, however hostile to.
Basic Income
In the intra-party debate on the unconditional basic income in the autumn of 2007 Palmer was initially on the side of the proponents of basic income, which it should be linked from his point of view with a minimum wage. As a model for increasing taxes, he called for an increase of consumption and energy taxes. He assisted on the green party conference but the proposal of the Green Party Executive Board, which provided for the requirement of a basic security. The main reason was for Palmer that the proposed models for the basic income is not yet " ready for a vote " were. In addition, a confrontation with the green party leadership lies not in its intention.
Stuttgart 21
As an opponent of the project Stuttgart 21 in its current form, Palmer took over the leadership of the project opponents in the conciliation talks on this issue, even though the City Council of the City of Tübingen explicitly expressed for this project. Prior to the referendum on Stuttgart 21 on 27 November 2011, Palmer engaged in proxy fight. After his position was found in the popular vote is no majority, he explained that for him, " the chapter is definitely closed " and that " ... you can also lose " must.
2012 became known again significant cost increases of Stuttgart 21. Palmer argues for a concept ( "K -21" ), which received the railhead and is modularly upgraded or changed.
Coal power plant Brunsbuttel
Palmer advocated early 2010, the participation of the Stadtwerke Tübingen, whose board chairman, he is, at a planned coal-fired power plant in Brunsbuttel. Stadtwerke involved with 0.4 % in the project as part of a consortium on the SüdWestStrom. In July 2012, the SWS, the project was on.
Writings
- Boris Palmer: A city Bueller. Kiepenheuer & Petrovich, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-462-04113-2.