As if he had never been away: Boris Palmer pierces the barrel with two punches. Photo: /wine
After a month’s break, Lord Mayor Boris Palmer makes his first public appearance. The people of Tübingen seem happy – and not just because of the free beer.
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Clack – clack! The beer is already running. And it’s running again with Boris Palmer. After a month of self-imposed time off – because of his n-word scandal at a migration conference in Frankfurt – the mayor of Tübingen has reported back. In fact, even five hours earlier, as he emphasizes. “Otherwise the barrel would have stayed closed at the summer festival,” says Palmer in a good mood. And nobody wants that.
The three-week beard has grown into a well-groomed full beard. Dietmar Kübler, the organizer of the hype on the dusty Tübingen fairground, also noticed that the cure he is said to have spent in the Alps was good for him. Last year, Palmer needed seven hammer blows. Now it works in two. That’s almost as good as Stuttgart’s Frank Nopper.
The OB as a pop star
“I’ve always liked going to the shop, but I can do without,” explains Palmer when he stops by the town hall in the afternoon and works through a pile of urgent files. However, he probably only realizes that the office of Tübingen mayor is the best job in the world when he goes to the summer festival, which begins with a Ferris wheel ride. Because of the rain, the drive wheels slip. “Am I too heavy?” asks Palmer and has to get out of the gondola again. So he gained weight too.
Meanwhile, Gustav Kalbfell holds up a poster. “I think Boris is good,” it says. The 69-year-old from Reutlingen runs through Tübingen with it every Friday. This time he came to the fairground. Again and again someone pats Palmer on the shoulder. Others ask him for a selfie. A few youngsters squeal and shout “Super Boris”. Of course they don’t mean it seriously, but they do mean it a little bit – the OB as a pop star.
Full throttle with the bumper car
Altin Gasi and his buddies are standing at the bumper car. The Palmer is ok. “He takes his job seriously,” says the 19-year-old. But he didn’t even notice that he had been away for a month. What an OB does probably doesn’t have that much to do with his life after all. But only a few minutes later Altin Gasi was taught otherwise. Palmer made the bumper cars clear at Kübler. Notables and young people rush into the bumper cars. Everybody is laughing. Palmer himself entrusts himself to the driving skills of a twelve-year-old.
There’s also a lot of media attention – as if the Chancellor were about to make a government statement, as Palmer jokes. Everyone wanted to know what else he would open up after his return from the penalty box he had chosen himself. But he stays good. He doesn’t say anything about his time off either, he only mentions one passage from the Bible: Matthew 7, verse 16. “By the fruits you shall know them.” Let’s see.