As of: January 1, 2024 10:26 p.m
Several hundred Hamburg residents brought their New Year’s greetings to Mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD) on Monday. To mark this occasion, a reception traditionally takes place in the town hall on January 1st.
This time Ukrainian star singers also performed in the town hall hall. The police orchestra was there again, and because of the bad weather it didn’t play in front of the building as usual, but also in the town hall. In the tower room of the town hall, Tschentscher received a total of around 300 Hamburg residents and accepted their greetings and congratulations – including representatives of many clubs and associations, traditional costume groups and shooting guilds.
Hoping for a peaceful and quiet year
Tschentscher himself also expressed a wish: “Politically, I hope that things will be a little quieter. We have experienced a lot of crises in the last few years and on January 1st you can hope that there will be a peaceful and calmer new one year.” He sees his most important task as maintaining cohesion in the city.
AUDIO: Mayor Tschentscher welcomes Hamburgers in the town hall (1 min)
Opposition leader Thering also at the reception
The Hamburg citizens traditionally brought the first New Year’s greetings. Tschentscher received “encouragement” from the CDU parliamentary group leader, Dennis Thering. And this despite the fact that the mayor had said just before Christmas that “no state could be created” with the CDU. Opposition leader Thering also had concrete suggestions as to where his group could help. “The A26 East, the new construction of the Köhlbrand crossing, we want to get involved in all of that, it’s very important for Hamburg and we’re happy to support the mayor on that.” Thering continues that things aren’t quite so easy for him with his coalition partner, the Greens.
HHLA employees must stay outside
Not every congratulation and greeting was welcome that day: twelve employees of the Hamburg port operator HHLA in yellow high-visibility vests came to the New Year’s reception. However, they were turned away at the entrance, says one of them, works council member Jana Kamischke. “We have had a larger group of HHLA employees here in the past, over 500 people, who also went to the mayor in work clothes – and that wasn’t a problem.”
So today the employees were not allowed in – the official reason was: groups were not allowed. However, this was not a problem for other groups. Apparently there were concerns in the town hall about a protest against the partial sale of HHLA to the shipping company MSC.
Further information
Despite a few incidents and attacks on emergency services, Hamburg’s police spoke of a “comparatively quiet night”. more
Citizens’ benefits, minimum wages and CO2 prices are rising, cannabis possession will go unpunished and the heating law is coming. What will be different in 2024. more
In Hamburg, city fees were increased significantly in some areas at the turn of the year. The biggest increase is in garbage collection. more
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NDR 1 Lower Saxony | Hamburg Journal | 01/01/2024 | 4:00 p.m