Did you know that it is easier to collect the signatures required to stand as a candidate in the Bundestag election than in a city council or mayoral election? If you wish to stand as an independent candidate in the German Bundestag election, you can collect these signatures on the street, subject to a few […]
On 28 October, the council meeting also saw that very strange CDU question regarding the appeal, in which the fact that some homeless people were spending the night in tents in Leipzig’s parks was simply described as ‘wild camping’, and fantasies of clearing them away were raised. However, following the comprehensive response from the Department […]
On 28 October, the Leipzig City Council kicked off its budget deliberations. As is well known, the City Council intends to adopt the new 2027/2028 biennial budget as early as December, so that the debate over money does not coincide with the mayoral election campaign. After all, Leipzig will be electing a new Lord Mayor […]
It is somewhat understandable that a certain sense of apprehension took hold amongst the Leipzig CDU parliamentary group that riot-like conditions might arise in Leipzig city centre today, Saturday 31 October. ‘Gen Z regelt das’ has called for a protest at 2 pm on Leipzig’s Augustusplatz, followed by a march along part of the Ringstraße. […]
The Leipzig-based photographer Martin Neuhof is known not only to the people of Leipzig for his political activism. This began in 2014, when he was one of the founders of the Leipzig-based initiative ‘No-Legida’ and was active on its behalf far beyond Leipzig. In 2015, he launched the ‘Zeig Dich’ photo campaign to take a […]
Alan Tovar Prado, the owner of the Mexican restaurant ‘Gallo Negro’ in Leipzig-Plagwitz, had organised a discussion evening entitled ‘Local Politics, Global Minds Leipzig’ with Wolfram Günther, the Green Party’s candidate for Mayor of Leipzig. We spoke to Alan beforehand and were curious to see how such an evening would unfold. On Thursday, 22 October, […]
Unfortunately, it is no longer common in Germany for informal discussions with politicians to take place in small groups. Alan Tovar Prado, an entrepreneur from Leipzig, is reviving this old tradition. Under the slogan “Local Politics, Global Minds Leipzig”, he is once again hosting an event at his restaurant, Gallo Negro, at Karl-Heine-Straße 70 on […]
There are districts in Leipzig where tall, old trees line the streets. In others, the sun beats down on unshaded pavements. As a result, these neighbourhoods get particularly hot during scorching summers like the one in 2026. In August, BUND Leipzig therefore submitted a residents’ enquiry asking about the extent of tree canopy cover in […]
Leipzig has set itself a massive challenge: With the 2027/2028 implementation programme as part of the 2030 Energy and Climate Protection Programme, the Mayor’s Advisory Service reaffirmed on Monday, 12 October, the continuation of the city’s roadmap to combat climate change. By the end of 2028, CO₂ emissions per inhabitant within the city limits are […]
Now that the AfD has also put forward a candidate, Ralf Kohl is the fifteenth contender for the post of Lord Mayor of Leipzig for the next seven years. Although that isn’t quite accurate – as will become clear later in the interview – Ralf Kohl wants to become ‘Oberbürger’ (Senior citizen); after all, the […]
The city budget for 2027/28 is likely to be a balancing act. On the one hand, savings must be made, as Torsten Bonew, the councillor responsible for finance, emphasized when presenting the budget to the city council. On the other hand, the political groups and the advisory boards entitled to submit proposals must prevent new […]
How can Leipzig secure more social housing? This issue has been on the city council’s agenda for years. There is simply not enough funding from the federal and state governments to build the 1,100 to 1,300 new social housing units required each year. Only 400 to 500 are actually being built. And so the list […]
Is the glass half full or half empty? It always depends on your perspective. Take, for example, the ban on the conversion of residential property in Leipzig, from which the Left Party group on the Leipzig City Council had expected far more. Such a ban has been in force in Leipzig since 1 September 2024. […]
Leipzig’s city coffers are largely empty; the city has to finance many services through cash-flow loans, and the mayor responsible for finance has presented an austerity budget. Naturally, none of this is a reason for the political groups on the city council to table their amendments to the 2027/28 two-year budget. The deadline for submissions […]
Here we go. At the last council meeting, Torsten Bonew, the councillor responsible for finance, presented the draft for the 2027/2028 biennial budget. The City Council intends to approve it in December so that the budget debate does not fall in the middle of the 2027 mayoral election campaign. That is why this week also […]
This makes Prof. Getu Abraham the 13th candidate in the field for the 2027 mayoral election – or perhaps the 14th, should Ralf Kohl, as he has announced, go on to officially declare his candidacy. Assuming there are thirteen candidates, there are still 11 men and only 2 women. Nine of them have already been […]
CDU city councillor Dr Sabine Heymann spoke of a “somewhat shameful memory that tugs at the heartstrings” at the council meeting on 2 September: The topic was the memorial to the victims of tyranny at Leipzig’s Südfriedhof – a special place, yet one that has long been relegated to an undignified existence on the edge […]
The scorching summer of 2026 showed everyone in Leipzig where global warming is heading. And just how ill-prepared the city of Leipzig actually is for such high temperatures of around 40 degrees. Naturally, the Left Party group on Leipzig City Council wanted to know what the city was now investing in to protect against the […]
Leipzig is growing. Even now, at a time when the Free State of Saxony is once again forecasting a decline in population figures. There are many reasons for this. Young people, in particular, are moving into the city. But this has consequences for the housing market – an issue that has now also caught the […]
Sven Morlok has been a member of Leipzig City Council again since 2014, having previously represented the FDP there from 2004 to 2009. In the intervening years, he was a member of the Saxon State Parliament and a minister in the Free State’s government. He understands the formalities of council work like no other and […]
In fact, it is not necessarily the case that a party has to go along with the U-turns at local level that its party is making in the federal government. Take, for example, the Building Modernisation Act, through which the Merz government is suggesting to the public that it still makes sense to invest money […]
It was to be expected that this would cause trouble once again. It’s only to be expected when a city, under massive pressure from a budget that has spiralled out of control, is forced to cut 500 jobs. And to do so within a very, very short timeframe, in order to have any impact at […]
Thousands of households in Leipzig are looking for an affordable flat and are simply unable to find one at present. One way of alleviating the housing shortage to some extent would, of course, be to put the residential buildings in Leipzig – of which there are by no means a few – that have stood […]
On 2 September, late in the evening, the City Council also voted on a proposal in which the Social Affairs Department reported unplanned additional expenditure of around 50 million euros, which the city can now only finance through new cash advances – in other words, debt. And the debate on the matter took a bizarre […]
Although the outcome of the Saxony-Anhalt state election was a recurring theme in all the speeches delivered on Tuesday evening at the Heilandskirche in Plagwitz, the Leipzig Alliance of the Greens do not wish to remain in its shadow. All the speakers made it clear: we want a Green Lord Mayor, and that person will […]
The headline refers to the time it took for the city council to discuss and vote on a proposal that had been drawn up with broad participation from the city’s community. A section of Georg-Schumann-Straße in Leipzig, between Chausseehaus and Böhmestraße – approximately 600 metres in length – is to be upgraded. As part of […]
It was, in fact, to be expected that this motion would provide an opportunity for an AfD city councillor such as Roland Ulbrich to once again use his speaking time to rail against democracy projects and NGOs. And that a CDU city councillor, too, would feel targeted was also to be expected. For it was […]
It could have been so simple if all the parties represented on Leipzig City Council, as well as the city administration, were to work and debate in a proper manner. Often, however, this does not happen; pointless discussions take place simply to put forward views that have nothing to do with the issue at hand. […]
Anyone wishing to view the full presentation of the draft for Leipzig’s 2027/2028 two-year budget for themselves can now do so. Torsten Bonew, the councillor responsible for finance, Mayor Burkhard Jung and Ulrich Hörning, the mayor responsible for administration, to the presentation of this budget package – which has truly been forged through sweat and […]
It will be a masterstroke if the city and the city council actually manage to pass the new two-year budget for 2027/2028 on 17 December 2026. The city council itself has set this ambitious deadline. For if it doesn’t go to plan, the budget vote will fall right in the middle of the 2027 mayoral […]
Ahead of the forthcoming council meeting on 2 September, Torsten Bonew, the councillor responsible for finance, has tabled a proposal to amend the by-laws governing the accommodation tax. The proposal essentially concerns only the option to submit tax returns electronically. However, the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen parliamentary group felt that, since a decision on amending the […]
The whole country is facing enormous challenges and really ought to be investing heavily in climate and heat protection to make it sustainable for its people. Yet the very body that could shoulder this investment is being effectively sidelined by a fiscal policy at federal and state level that has gone completely off the rails: […]
What opportunities do independent candidates and those put forward by smaller parties have to present their issues to the electorate during the election campaign? This question arises not only in the current mayoral election campaign in Leipzig. Here at the LZ, we’ve made it simple for ourselves. We are conducting interviews with all candidates across […]
A question raised in the city council has consequences. At the last city council meeting in July, the BSW group wanted to know, amongst other things: “What is the current extent of municipal compensation areas within Leipzig’s urban area and outside the city limits?” It is actually an obvious question, because whenever valuable green space […]
Number 12 on the list of candidates so far for the office of mayor of Leipzig is finally a woman once again, bringing the proportion of women among the candidates to 1/6, or around 16.7 per cent. On 22 August, Anne Giulia Giermann was confirmed as a candidate for the mayoral election at the nomination […]
The proportion of women standing in the forthcoming election for the new mayor currently stands at 10 per cent of the candidates; this has not changed even following the announcement of The Greens candidate. With Wolfram Günther, not only is another political heavyweight entering the fray, but also another native of Leipzig. Although this is, […]
The thermometer in Leipzig read up to 42.5 degrees in the shade during that remarkable week at the end of June, when the heat even caused the grout between the tram tracks to melt, bringing tram services to a standstill for days. And such temperatures will become more common in Leipzig in future. That is […]
At the council meeting on 1 July, Dr Martina Münch, the councillor responsible for social affairs, made some clear statements: just one member of staff at the social services department is handling the cases of rent gouging reported to the city. There are hundreds of them. And even that is only a fraction of the […]
The City of Leipzig is once again planning to increase parental contributions for crèches, nurseries and after-school care. The city administration hopes this will generate additional revenue of around nine million euros over the next two financial years, 2027 and 2028. However, a majority on the city council had already rejected the increase during negotiations […]
One question remained unanswered after the city announced on 29 July: “From the 2027 financial year onwards, the second-home tax is to be raised from the current 16 per cent to 20 per cent. The senior administration has now set in motion the corresponding amendment to the city’s statutes, which will be submitted to the […]
It has been primarily the CDU parliamentary group that has repeatedly blocked efforts in recent times to adjust Leipzig’s parental contributions to reflect the rising costs in childcare centres. The city is now making a fresh attempt to secure a moderate adjustment to these contributions. This is because the city itself must cover the shortfall. […]
At the end of July, Leipzig’s city administration submitted a proposal to the city council that is set to cause quite a stir. Not only for political groups that are not particularly keen on environmental protection, but also for departments and agencies for whom the city’s unspoilt natural environment is still a bargaining chip that […]
In early 2027, Leipzig will elect a new Lord Mayor – this time a genuinely new candidate, as the incumbent is no longer eligible to stand. The field of candidates is slowly taking shape, though with just one female candidate out of nine, the proportion of women is, unfortunately, very low. The Humanist Party (PdH) […]
A turnout of 20,000 people had been forecast for the closing rally and the main march of this year’s CSD in Leipzig; according to our estimates, this figure was indeed reached. Augustusplatz was already well filled at 11.00 am – that is, at the start of the event – and the crowd continued to grow. […]
The dispute over the small wood on Capastraße has also brought to the fore once again an issue that Leipzig’s environmental authorities are keen to play down. For in the Property Office’s proposal for the sale of the copse, it was once again boldly claimed that the loss of the copse could be offset elsewhere. […]
Will we find, from 2030 onwards, that Leipzig is no longer able to launch any major construction projects at all because there is simply no financial leeway left in the budget? That is the question on everyone’s lips. For the past three years, the budget has been spiralling completely out of control, completely overwhelmed by […]
If you need an appointment at one of Leipzig’s citizen service centres, you often need to be prepared for a long wait and a great deal of patience. As a rule, you have to book the appointment online or arrange one by telephone via the citizen helpline. The latter applies mainly to older people and […]
This concern was only too understandable, given that during the last elections Leipzig seemed to be literally drowning in a deluge of election posters. Many poles were covered from top to bottom. Some parties covered entire streets with their posters. And many posters were already lying torn to shreds on the grass after just a […]
Just a few years ago, the city council was still debating whether Leipzig should introduce a tourist accommodation tax or not. Now, everyone is pleased that the city can raise additional funds from it, which in turn benefit tourism. But who exactly? From the city’s point of view, the City Council’s Economic Committee has sufficient […]
Ultimately, it always comes down to acceptance. This is true of the energy transition too. All the more so when two districts of Leipzig – Hartmannsdorf and Knautnaundorf – are particularly affected within their local areas, as it is primarily here that Leipzig’s wind power capacity is being expanded. They then find themselves with significantly […]
It was to be expected that there would be a commotion over this agenda item at the council meeting on 2 July. Die-hard patriarchs simply cannot help but shout out and vociferously express their old-fashioned displeasure. They have internalised patriarchy. And so it did indeed get noisy in the city council when the motion ‘Proposal […]
On 2 July, a question was also raised at the council meeting regarding the call that the Left Party group has been persistently raising since August 2025. And, in fact, Torsten Bonew, the councillor responsible for finance, had intended to provide a comprehensive answer to this question this July. However, since his department has been […]
At the council meeting on 2 July, there was a minor first. Until now, when it came to questions from the city council, it had generally been the political groups themselves who were given the floor and were able to use the time to put further oral questions to the relevant mayors regarding their original […]
On 1 January 2026, the dog licence regulations for Leipzig – which had been adopted in December – came into force. They had been the subject of heated debate, partly because the city had a keen interest in microchipping as many dogs registered in Leipzig as possible, so that tax collection could be carried out […]
The Left Party had got off to such an enthusiastic start with its ‘rent profiteering’ app. Over 6,000 suspected cases of completely exorbitant rents have already been recorded in Leipzig using the app. It would then, in theory, be straightforward to report these cases to the city council, which would establish the breach of tenancy […]
On 1 July, the City Council did not manage to get through all the items on the agenda. There were still some important items left, which then had to be carried over to the continuation of the meeting on 2 July. And once again, the discussion centred on the city’s financial difficulties – for which […]
How long will this heatwave actually remain in the memories of the people of Leipzig? On 1 July, it was still cool. Even the Leipzig City Council was delighted that the first LVB trams were running again at all, after the local transport company had been forced to suspend all services over the weekend of […]
In fact, Leipzig City Council had already sent a clear signal back in March against the plans of Wolfram Weimer, Germany’s State Secretary for Culture, to simply scrap the fifth extension to the German National Library in Leipzig. Even though it is urgently needed to house the books of the next 30 years. Weimer’s announcement […]
Pupils from the Leibniz-Gymnasium on Nordplatz also took the opportunity on 1 July to attend the council meeting as guests. This was because the agenda for that day included an item that was of great interest to them: when would it finally be their school’s turn for refurbishment? The Left Party had tabled a question […]
One is allowed to dream, after all. Even city councillors are allowed to dream – of a beautiful, peacefully situated villa in Machern, where one can not only sleep soundly but also hold party group retreats in a seclusion from city life that is otherwise hard to find in Leipzig. And so it came as […]
It was not only Left Party city councillor Susanne Scheidereiter who was deeply disappointed when, at the council meeting on 1 July, the latest motion to reduce the city’s impervious surface area was rejected by the council majority. The Greens’ parliamentary group, too, had repeatedly failed with its motions in recent years, even though the […]
There is a certain irony in the fact that two city councillors – one from the BSW and one from the AfD – have jointly tabled a motion with the misleading title ‘Pilot project: Voluntary driving licence exchange’. The title is misleading because, as you know, old driving licences – the grey and pink ones, […]
That really was something else, and even Leipzig’s city administration rarely manages to take three years to respond to a motion from the city council with its own position. This is exactly what happened with a motion tabled by the Green Party group in April 2023: ‘Enabling temporary and mobile urban green spaces’. After all, […]
More and more households in Leipzig are struggling not only to find an affordable flat, but also – once they have one – to pay their rent. This is made clear even by the 2025 Citizens’ Survey, in which the issue of rent and housing was overwhelmingly identified as the number one problem facing Leipzig’s […]
A town thrives on optimism, on the feeling that things are moving forward and life goes on. But what if the town is financially strangled? Then the town council’s ability to even draft and pass meaningful motions begins to dwindle. Even when – as in the case of the Forced Labour Memorial – the aim […]
Torsten Bonew, the city’s finance councillor, had to bring this item forward as a matter of urgency at the council meeting on 1 July, as it got right to the heart of the matter – the financial situation of the City of Leipzig. It is catastrophic. The 2025/2026 budget has already made this abundantly clear. […]
There was no ‘Strack-Zimmermann moment’ at the CDU Leipzig nomination meeting on 23 June. The candidate for the 2027 mayoral election was to be chosen at the Alte Handelsbörse. As announced on 2 June, the district executive committee had proposed Michael Weickert, the parliamentary group leader on Leipzig City Council, and the general meeting endorsed […]
There’s a demonstration today. Today, someone who doesn’t usually take to the streets is demonstrating: the city of Leipzig itself. Just like hundreds of other local authorities across Germany, which are being brought to their knees by the mandatory tasks imposed by the federal government and are sliding ever deeper into debt. ‘Local authorities at […]
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