Lord Mayor Christian Ude vies for fourth term

Christian Ude, who has served as Lord Mayor of Munich since 1993, yesterday announced that he will seek a fourth term in 2008.

After originally hesitating and thinking out loud about stepping down, he has now decided to remain in Munich as Lord Mayor and to not (yet) shift his political activities to Berlin and go into nationwide politics. He has been President of the Deutscher Städtetag (Council of German Cities) since June 2005, rumor had it that he would use his experience there to bid for a job in the federal government.

Ude states with a twinkle in his eye that one of the main reasons for running for a fourth term is Munich's 800th birthday, coming up in June 2008. He refuses to take part in the celebrations as "Alt-Oberbürgermeister" at the ridiculously young age of 60 after having spent almost half of his life in City Hall.

He wants to be president of the Städtetag again for which he needs to be OB of Munich.
He's Germany's most senior directly elected politician and he's a wily old dog!
I have one or two differences with him but I'll be voting for him again.

Now he's been all nice to the Christians the last couple of weeks, I expect to seem him in the Bräurosl on Sunday mind!

Also, the SPD wouldn't find it so easy to win with Maget as a candidate.

I like him, he took the time to talk to me in English a few years ago even tho he knew I couldn't actually vote in Munich for him, I think he is very level headed and a very ethical person...odd that for a politician

He started out as a journalist and did political cabaret on the side. Might have kept him human. He was also recently honored for his support of cyclists and their rights and needs.

we will have to see if his technique has got any better this year and goes for a single tap on Sunday!

I just missed him but apparently he did turn up at the Bräurosl on Sunday.
Wouldn't have voted for him again otherwise.

Why though? To get the "gay vote"? Or does he like cock?

I couldn't possibly comment.

He needs and courts the gay vote and he gets it.
He was cleverly doing it well before those frigging professional heemas in Hamburg and Berlin: "Ole" and "Wowi" got on the scene.

I had a few free minutes tonight in my local and grabbed the Munich section of the SZ.
I recomend it big time.

I was kind of lured in by what the CSU was supposedly promising for us Münchners after the elections next March.
They were saying that Munich City Council is a "hangover" from "Rot-Grün".

Full of joy I started to read, but the three major points coming from the CSU were:

*) Stop Muslims building mosques.
*) The danger that children going to schools in Munich might be non Christian
*) Turkey should not be in the EU, ever.

So same racist shit as last time hey?
Any TTer who has the right to vote gonna vote CSU?

CSU sounds good to me if that's their manifesto.

Spank you later BD,it will hurt.

Kevlar on order

Having lived in MUC for almost 12 years now, I'd say that (Lord) Mayor Ude is doing a good job of making everyone feel welcome here. The only thing he always seems to screw up is when the city builds new neighborhoods designed for families, & then forgets such minor details as kindergartens, primary schools & secondary schools. I say this having experienced this lack at every stage in my daughter's life. It always seems to occur to them (MUC city gov't) later, as an afterthought... The big new neighborhood on the Bajuwarenstr here will just exasperate the problem.

On the plus side, I like Ude's sense of humor. His Mother's Day column in the AZ, in which he described the division of work in his family, was really funny! Also, a few years back one of the radio stations played a joke on him in which they pretended that his double at the Nockerberg festivities had gotten sick, and asked if Ude could fill in for him so that the show could go on. So in other words, they were asking Ude to impersonate someone impersonating Ude! It was so funny - Ude agreed!

So, I feel very comfortable having Ude run again!

I'm happy to see Ude do it again. He's not pissed me off, so I guess he's doing a good job.

His books "Meine verfruehten Memoiren" and "Chefsache" (both Piper-Verlag) are worth a read, for those familiar enough with German, and with Munich life, to grasp the finer points. Nothing dull about them, collections of anecdotes from his experiences as mayor, or from his earlier life, written with wit and humour. The kind of book you can dip into at random.

I wonder if he reads TT? I wouldn't be surprised.

My gf will definately vote for him again...but, she can't remember who was Mayor before him. Anyone know? (so, before 1993)

Erich Kiesl (1978 - 1984), former lawyer and notary who was done for fraud and perjury in the late 90's regarding the sale of some industrial real estate. He could not be collected on in spite of his mayoral and Bavarian government pension as he had assigned it to his wife for money which he had borrowed from her. Sometimes lawyer is synonymous with vermin.
He is currently honorary chairman of the CSU Munich.
Flanked by Georg Kronawitter (1972 - 1978, 1984 - 1993), best known for his insistence that no sky-scrapers be built within the Mittlerer Ring. 80 years old next April.