The maverick town mayor

The Story

Germany’s most famous (and perhaps infamous) town mayor has won a barnstorming electoral victory, leading to embarrassment for the Green party, who’d tried to disown him.

Boris Palmer might only be mayor of Tübingen, a town of 90,000 inhabitants in Baden-Württemberg, but he is also one of Germany’s most recognisable political figures.

That's partly explained by the fact that he was in his early 30s when first elected town mayor in 2006, when he was tipped for great things.

While Palmer never did make it beyond the political perimeters of Tübingen, that hasn't stopped him becoming an influential voice on national developments.

He is also something of a maverick. His party are known for being as politically correct as can be, but Palmer’s frequent outbursts on hot-button issues have seen him labelled a racist.

On his Facebook page, he once ranted that “asylum seekers should behave better” after a black man cycled too close to him on the pavement. He named his book on refugees “We ca…