Greens and North Essen, no room for illusions

Christine Muller Hechfelner is no stranger to politics in Essen. The 53-year-old sat for 16 years, from 2004 to 2020, in the Green Party of the city council, was the deputy leader of the parliamentary group and was primarily concerned with youth welfare and social affairs. At the council, you’d often see them with knitting needles and wool balls like greens from the start.

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Müller-Hechfellner has been a member of the party since 1994. At that time her goal was to prevent Helmut Kohl from getting another term as Federal Chancellor. Nothing came of it. But now that Angela Merkel is about to leave office, she is feeling the mood for change.

At the council, she experimented with nails being rolled in Berlin

Nevertheless, Müller-Hickfellner pushed social issues to run for the nomination, she herself says. Especially in North Essen, where unemployment is high, the proportion of immigrants is high and where many children live in socially disadvantaged conditions, much will be in a bad way. As a local politician, she has experience that crucial “tuning screws” are being turned in Berlin.

She has no illusions. In 2017, the Greens received 5.4% of the first votes in their constituency. Müller-Hechfelner set herself the goal of “local election result + x”. In 2019, she received 16.6% of the vote as a candidate for Horst City Council.

Müller-Hechfelner regrets that people are talked about so much on the campaign trail

Müller-Hechfelner regrets that there has been so much public talk about leading candidate Annalena Barbock and less about political content. Your impression: “It’s bumpy to all candidates.” Programmatically, Müller-Hitchfelner sees greater overlaps with the SPD. “After that it will be difficult,” especially with the left, because they want to get out of NATO. So the traffic light, that is, the alliance with the SPD and the Party of Freedom and Democracy, is a “conceivable alternative” for them.

Christine Muller Hechfelner studied political science. As a lecturer in German as a foreign language, she teaches refugee women and would like to continue to do so after the general elections.

Kristen Muller Hechfelner is married with two daughters, 21 and 13, and lives with her family in Horst.

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