After weeks of withdrawing from the public eye, Tübingen’s Mayor Boris Palmer decided to restart on social media under different conditions. Only “friends” should be able to comment on his Facebook profile.
“This is a circle limited to 5000 people. Enough people to show many perspectives. But no longer the openness for every troll and every fake profile to let off steam on my site,” wrote Palmer in a post last night. Without constantly having to absorb negative energies from Facebook, he has lived much better and more relaxed over the past two months.
“Maybe I’ll make an exception every now and then if there’s any hope that the commentators from Buxtehude and Kleinkleckersdorf won’t interfere,” added Palmer. Palmer wrote that if you go from friend to troll, you become unfriend. “That seems legitimate to me, nobody has a claim to friendship. And none of that is censorship. Anyone who wants to bully, insult, provoke or badmouth me can continue to do so everywhere, just not on my side anymore.”
The mayor of Tübingen took a four-week break on June 1st. The reason for this was an uproar surrounding Palmer’s statements on the sidelines of a migration conference in Frankfurt/Main at the end of April. After the escalation, he also left the Greens.
Today he is appearing publicly again for the first time in his function as Lord Mayor. Among other things, Palmer is expected in the evening at the opening of the Tübingen Summer Festival. Officially, Palmer’s break lasts all of June. A spokeswoman for the city administration announced that Palmer would resume regular service in the city hall on Monday.
