Ryyan Alshebl, a 29-year-old Syrian refugee, was elected Mayor of a German village on Sunday with an absolute majority of 55.41 percent of the votes cast, the municipality announced in the evening.
Alshebl, who fled Syria in 2015, ran as an independent candidate for Mayor of Ostelsheim in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.
In his private life, however, he is a member of the Green Party.
He describes his experiences in the election campaign as “mostly positive.”
At the age of 21, Alshebl had fled his hometown of Sweida in the south of Syria. He has now been working in the administration of nearby Althengstett town hall for seven years.
As mayor, Alshebl now plans to move to Ostelsheim in the district of Calw, he said.
Alshebl is probably the first Syrian mayor in the south-west of Germany. According to the Association of Municipalities of Baden-Württemberg, there has been no other candidate with Syrian roots for a mayor’s office so far.
In the election on Sunday, Alshebl prevailed against the non-party candidates Marco Strauß and Mathias Fey.
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