Heiner Kockerbeck: This is how he advocates for social justice in Cologne!

Heiner Kockerbeck: This is how he advocates for social justice in Cologne!

Heiner Kockerbeck, the 61-year-old candidate for mayor of the Cologne Left, is intensively committed to the city's interests. As a teacher at a comprehensive school and a member of the Cologne city council for eleven years, he not only brings knowledge of educational policy, but also a lot of experience in urban construction. Born and raised in Bergisch Gladbach, Kockerbeck has lived in Cologne since 1985, where he has lived in the Deutz district since 2002 with his wife and two cats. In his role as co-head of the Die Linke faction in the city council, he strives for social justice in the city.

“There is something going on,” says Kockerbeck as the Left Party gives a speech on Wilhelmplatz in Nippes on Sunday, amid a cheerful Veedelsfest atmosphere. The party is also planning a series of “Red Festivals” in various districts such as Ehrenfeld, Kalk and Mülheim to spread its campaign themes. The final event for the local elections on September 14th will take place on September 5th at Wiener Platz and will be supported by Heidi Reichinnek.

Important goals for Cologne

In the last few months, Kockerbeck has addressed the “deep-seated dissatisfaction” of Cologne residents. His calls are aimed at the city's social infrastructure and a higher number of staff in the housing office in order to combat rent usury. In his visionary homelessness policy, he proposes a “Housing First” model based on the Finnish model. In order to finance his ambitious social improvements, Kockerbeck is calling for an increase in trade tax, the elimination of the underfunding of municipalities and higher taxes for income millionaires in Cologne.

• Insgesamt sieben Schwerpunkte in Kockerbecks Programmatik:
• Bekämpfung der Wohnungskrise und Gründung eines kommunalen Wohnungsunternehmens
• Verkehrswende mit Ausbau von Bus- und Bahnangeboten sowie 100 km Schienen und 20 km Radwegen
• Bildungswende zur Schaffung von 7.000 U3-Kitaplätzen und Ausbaus der Gesamtschulen
• Sozial-gerechte Wärmewende und Klimagerechtigkeit in benachteiligten Vierteln
• Obdachlosigkeit bis 2030 abschaffen und Umsetzung des Kölner Konzepts zur Bekämpfung von Wohnungslosigkeit
• Bündnis für Bildung, Soziales und Kultur zur dauerhaften Förderung von Vereinen
• Verbesserung der kommunalen Haushaltslage durch steuerliche Maßnahmen

Kockerbeck criticizes the city's neglectful budget management and sees the support from the federal and state governments as inadequate. He is aiming to form a red-red-green coalition in the next council alliance and is calling for more social positions from the Greens and for the SPD to move away from the “concrete and car faction”. Kockerbeck's concerns about SPD politics are particularly evident with regard to the controversial tunnel project on the East-West axis.

In the last federal elections, the Left received 14.9 percent of the vote in Cologne and even became the strongest force in Höhenberg, Humboldt-Gremberg, Kalk and Mülheim. Kockerbeck is committed to winning direct mandates in the local elections in the districts of Chorweiler, Kalk and Mülheim and sees it as necessary to “set topics and influence the direction”.

Voters can be curious to see how Kockerbeck's ideas will develop in the election campaign. It could be time for the citizens of Cologne to bring a breath of fresh air into politics.

You can find out more about Kockerbeck's proposals and the Left's election campaign at ksta.de and koelner-stadtteilliebe.de.