Ninety-five percent of the participants in the referendum held this Sunday in the city of Frankfurt voted in favor of the dismissal of its mayor, the controversial Peter Feldmann.
«It seems that I will no longer be the mayor as of Friday,» said Feldmann himself after the first data of the count, collected by the German public television ARD.
The turnout has reached almost 200,000 people, and is well above the 30 percent of the census –152,455 votes – necessary to validate the referendum to displace the politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). It also exceeded the 50 percent needed for the recall.
Feldmann is being investigated in court for corruption related to high salaries at the Association of Welfare Workers (AWO), allegations he denies.
He was also at the center of a controversy when he snatched the Europa League Cup from Eintracht Frankfurt captain Sebastian Roede to display it on the balcony of City Hall after claiming on the return flight that the stewardesses «have knocked out my hormones.» He was declared ‘persona non grata’ by the club.
