Andreas Hupke leaves the Greens and forms a new electoral alliance!

Andreas Hupke leaves the Greens and forms a new electoral alliance!

In a surprising turn of events, Andreas Hupke, a member of the Green Party for almost 30 years and currently the district mayor for the city center, has announced that he is leaving the party. This is seen as a logical consequence of his long-standing differences with the party, which he recently accused of age discrimination. Hupke, who recently celebrated his 75th birthday, plans to start a new chapter in his political career. The kick-off event for his newly founded “Action Alliance Downtown/Deutz – Team Andreas Hupke” took place on Friday evening, which is intended to appeal to voters in the upcoming local elections in September. According to [Rundschau Online].

The formation of his electoral alliance came after months of disputes with the Greens. Despite Hupke's many years of commitment and achievements, he was denied the nomination. The reactions from the party were divided; While Hupke received thanks for his work, he was also told that he was not interested in offers of interviews. The deputy district mayor Antje Kosubek, who also left the Greens in the district council, also sharply criticized Hupke's treatment. “There’s something going on,” one might say as the internal conflicts came to a head.

The new action alliance

With his new group, Hupke plans to run in the local elections on September 14th. Up to 19 candidates were chosen for the electoral alliance at the constituent meeting on May 31st. Hupke himself will take the top spot. His eleven-point election program aims to strengthen the rights of residents in the city center and to give the district council more self-determination rights. If you look at the last elections, voter favorability for the Greens in Cologne has increased continuously since 1979, with a vote share of 44.3% being achieved in the last local elections in 2020, according to information from [Wikipedia](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Results_der_Kommunalwahlen_in_K%C3%B6ln).

Andreas Hupke and his new alliance will be in direct competition with the Greens, of which he was an integral part for so long. “I will finally break with the Greens if the city of Cologne allows my new team to run for local elections,” Hupke made clear. He accused the party of no longer wanting to put him on the list, which he felt was an injustice. These events shed light on the current political conflict within the Cologne Greens and the challenges that exist for future cooperation at the political level.