In addition to the existing city council factions, another local political group has formed under the name "we for erlangen" formed. The founding board members are volker leiste, maximilian kunkel and christoph stollberg from erlangen.
"We want to get involved in local politics as a non-partisan association, because we do not see certain issues being adequately represented by the classic parties in the local election campaign, or because we are subject to the requirements of overriding party programs", according to leiste, who was elected as the first chairman at the foundation meeting. "We for erlangen sees itself as a modern economic liberal-bourgeois alternative to the entrenched party platforms of the established parties.
Housing, economic, transport and environmental issues in erlangen must be brought together in a practical way and not viewed within an ideological framework, according to a press release. Municipal policy benefits cost money, and that money has to be earned first. "We also have to bake the cake and can’t just dream about distributing it, so leiste.
The group complains that there is a lot of talk but almost no action. "We cannot, for example, populistically declare a climate emergency for erlangen, but we can cut down huge amounts of trees, let the last fields disappear under the concrete of new construction areas in the city and destroy inner-city gardens in the context of redensification."
Among the group’s objectives u. A., that it sees limitless urban growth as the wrong way forward. Urban development should only take place on industrial wastelands in the city area or. Through the conversion of industrial land take place. Erlangen’s traffic problems called for the best municipal transport system – without committing to just one technical solution.
"We for erlangen" plans in the next few months to make known the ideas of the group and wait for the reactions from the population and also the business community. Only then do they want to draw up a list of candidates for the 2020 city council elections.