In Dresden there is no longer an independent alderman for finances. The previous Finance Mayor Peter Lames will return to the Dresden Higher Regional Court as presiding judge on March 1, as he confirmed when asked by DNK. The lawyer, who was born in 1964, was already a presiding judge at the Higher Regional Court before his appointment as Deputy for Personnel and Law in September 2015 and had worked in the Saxon judicial service since the mid-1990s. At the beginning of 2017, Lames succeeded Hartmut Vorjohann as finance mayor.
Due to changes in the structure of the business areas, the previously independent department for finance, human resources and law has been eliminated from the City of Dresden. Instead, Mayor Dirk Hilbert takes over the finance function in his division. Lames has been finance mayor of the state capital for the past seven years and originally applied again for this advertised position for the summer 2022 elections. The election now took place on January 26 – but without Lames.
Finance mayor resigns
Shortly before last week’s city council meeting, Lames announced his withdrawal from Dresden city politics: “For the path we are now striving for, the Lord Mayor, in addition to his unrestricted right to issue instructions to all deputies, also has direct departmental responsibility for the city’s finances and economic control of the city I was not and am not available in any capacity to transfer companies,” Lames explains his decision in a written statement. This path is not only unique in the democratic history of Dresden since 1989/90, but also without precedent in comparable cities nationwide.
In Dresden, the election of the councilors had been pending since last summer. With the new layout of the business areas, Mayor Dirk Hilbert and the city council have now followed the suggestion of a team of moderators. The politicians Gunda Röstel and Thomas de Maizière were commissioned by the OBM and the city council factions in December 2022 to accompany the election process. As a result, after the change in the main statutes, there are only six instead of the original seven deputies. The new bylaws come into effect on February 1st.
After the election, which finally took place on January 26, there is still one vacancy in Dresden. According to information from the city, his election can take place in the city council on May 11th at the earliest. A new tender is in preparation.
