Independent (politician)

As a non-party member (also free deputy or Independent ) is a person who exercises a public office or mandate or aspires, but any political party belongs. No party can also be an MP after an election by it emerges from his party or is excluded. In Austria is customary in such cases the term wild deputy.

Parliamentarians who are members of any political faction, called non-attached Members. Non-party deputies are not necessary -attached and vice versa. Often forming free choice MPs communities or own Group of Independents.

In most modern democracies, most Members of Parliament and most of the members of the government parties are preselected and elected with their support. Independent candidates have the greatest importance where majority voting rules or binding to parties is not very pronounced. To be elected without the support of a party, usually a great notoriety among the electorate is necessary, especially in candidacy against party candidates. Nonparty be as direct candidates in elections therefore usually less chance given as party members. In federal elections independent candidates could win in 1949 constituencies directly and thus enter Parliament last year. In local elections, however, there often successful party lots, most of which are supported or condoned by the parties, provided that they do not set up their own candidates. However, parties are not compelled to nominate only members of the party for an election, so even non-party and members of other political parties or electoral groups may be nominated in so-called " open lists ". Party lots may vary by supporting signatures that are fixed in the municipal regulations of the countries, be put on the ballot.

In the U.S. and UK, there are always independent candidates who are successful. So, for example, Bernie Sanders since 1991 Member of the U.S. state of Vermont, since 2007, he represents the State in the Senate.

Rarely, a high political office is exercised by a nonparty. In most cases, it then is a person who is close to a party at least. A counter-example would be, for example, the current German President Joachim Gauck.

Municipal Political developments in Germany

In the Federal Republic of increasingly non-party candidates are elected especially in local politics for full-time mayor. In Hesse, a union of the non-partisan mayor has, for example, formed recently. In the years 2006 and 2007 a ​​national conference was non-partisan mayors and district councils held in Crimmitschau ( Saxony). 2011 -partisan mayors and district councils meet in Dresden on the occasion of the conference " The Mayors ". Especially in the northern German states, the trend is clear: Around a third of the directly elected head office of Lower Saxony officials have no party affiliation. In addition, increasingly established in the local central bodies such as the German Association of Cities and the cities of days of country quotas for party tickets. Among the best known non-party mayors include Kurt Machens ( Lord Mayor of the City of Hildesheim ) and Germany's youngest directly elected mayor Oliver Rastetter in the 4,000 residents strong community Lauf (Baden -Württemberg ) and Christoph Meineke in Wennigsen, with approximately 15,000 inhabitants of the region of Hannover. Doubtful - regardless of the legal definition - in the political science debate on whether one should classify local government associations as citizens alliances and municipal voter communities and their elected representatives in the spectrum of the parties or has to be classified as party -like organs of municipal decision-making.

Known non-party politician

Germany

Weimar Republic

• Wilhelm Cuno, Chancellor 1922-1923
• Hans Luther, chancellor from 1925 to 1926
• Franz von Papen, Chancellor 1932 ( until 1932 German Centre Party )
• Kurt von Schleicher, Chancellor 1932 and 1933
• Paul von Hindenburg, President of the Reich 1925-1934

Federal Republic of

• Ludwig Erhard, Federal Minister of Economics in the cabinets Adenauer I - V Adenauer was subsequently and retroactively added, according to the news magazine Spiegel in 1968, the CDU, after he had in 1966 accepted the presidency of the party.
• Hans Leussink, Federal Minister of Education and Science in the Cabinet Brandt I
• Werner Müller, Federal Minister of Economics and Technology in the Cabinet Schröder I
• Joachim Gauck, German Federal President since 2012 ( in the '90s Member of Alliance 90 )
• Helmut Palmer was a candidate at least 289 mayoral elections as well as 13 state and federal elections in Baden- Württemberg. He became known as " Rems - rebel". At the general election in 1983 Helmut Palmer received in the Bundestag constituency Göppingen 19.8% of the primary vote in 1987 in the Bundestag constituency Waiblingen 19.2%. Helmut Palmer is still the most successful non-party individual candidate in federal elections in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, which had not previously been in a party or was largely supported by this.
• Andreas Beier occur since 1998 as a non-partisan independent candidates in the parliamentary constituency of Ulm. He is known in Baden-Wuerttemberg by numerous public appearances and lectures.
• Konrad Dippel reached in parliament constituency Weiden in Bavaria in the national elections in 2005 and 2009 as a non-partisan independent candidates 13.6 and 14.1 percent of the primary vote.
• Wolfgang Nešković was elected in 2005 as an independent delegate on the state list of Brandenburg of the Left Party in the Bundestag. In 2009 he won the electoral district of Cottbus - Spree -Neisse as a non-party candidate for the Left Party. In December 2012, he resigned with immediate effect from the fraction of the left and announced to run as an independent candidate for the federal election of 2013.

Greece

• Loukas Papademos, former Vice President of the European Central Bank and the Prime Minister in the years 2011 and 2012

Italy

• Mario Monti, Italian prime minister from November 2011 to April 2013

Russia

• Vladimir Putin, president from 1999 to 2008 and since 2012, was from 2008 to 2012 chairman of the United Russia party, but never a member

Austria

• Karl -Heinz Grasser, Austrian Federal Minister of Finance from 2000 to 2007 (until 2002 FPÖ)
• Michael Hainisch, Austrian Federal President from 1920 to 1928
• Rudolf Kirchschläger, Austrian Federal President from 1974 to 1986

United States of America

• George Washington, first President of the United States