International Political Dialogue - Tangible Liberal Municipal Policy [printable version]
Tangible Liberal Municipal Policy
Mayors and Councilmen from Latin America visit German Cities and Mayors
The information journey took the municipal politicians in the first place to Saxony. They were presented with German approaches to solutions regarding administration, waste disposal, water, municipal political system and the development of tourism.
Who in Europe knows Chiquimula, Nacaome or Pilar? For Central Europeans, these names may evoke exotic dishes from overseas. Further surprises the fact that these are Central American and Latin American cities whose population figures approach six digits. These mayors showed interest in knowing the German municipal political system and were recently invited by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit) to meet their counterparts in Dresden, Cologne, Bonn, Brühl and Düsseldorf.
The delegation in talks with Dr. Anita Maaß, Mayor of Lommatsch (FDP)
The information journey took the municipal politicians in the first place to Saxony. They were presented with German approaches to solutions regarding administration, waste disposal, water, municipal political system and the development of tourism. The visitors discussed these subjects with German politicians and Liberals of the public sector. The interlocutors were, among others, Jan Mücke, parliamentary manager of the FDP (Freie Demokratische Partei, Liberal Democratic Party); Holger Zastrow, head of the FDP bench in the Parliament of Saxony, and Dr. Anita Maaß, Mayor of Lommatsch. The municipal politicians discussed with Dr. Maaβ the challenges of demographic change in the rural area. Dirk Hilbert, Mayor and in charge of the economic area of the City of Dresden (FDP), provided information on the evolution of Dresden as a city that promotes economic development and science and the strategies and concepts for economic development in the Saxon capital. Subsequently, the Latin Americans had the opportunity of an exchange with their colleagues from Cologne, Düsseldorf and Bonn, and they compared their respective municipal governments. During an interview with Ulrich Hauschild, FDP Mayor of Bonn, the participants received information on the marketing of cities and regional cooperation with neighbouring cities and districts. The Latin American municipal politicians were also able to provide their German hosts with information. In the framework of a public event held in the Liberal House (Liberales Haus) in Dresden, the visitors commented on the challenges and successes of municipal policy in Central America and Paraguay. The Project Director of the Foundation for Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala reported on the work done by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Latin America. The journey closed with a visit to the German capital.
The visitors at the Truman House (Truman-Haus) at the headquarters of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, Potsdam.
This informative journey on municipal policy constitutes not only an element of the formative work carried out by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom but also represents an important strand of a new initiative in matters of municipal policy in Central America. The Mayors and Councilmen that had the opportunity to visit Germany were selected previously with great accuracy and on the basis of given criteria, such as their willingness to cooperate in development, democratic principles and liberal orientation, to thus lay down the groundwork to promote an Association of Liberal Mayors in Central America. The objective of this association of liberal mayors is to put into practice liberal principles at municipal level, decentralization and administrative methodologies in the Central American region. Each of these mayors will recommend two counterparts who can carry out this type of cooperation. In the framework of the municipal policy initiative in Central America, this larger group will receive expert advice in the coming months and carry out exchanges and political dialogue.
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