CNN
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A Syrian man who arrived in Germany as a refugee in 2015 has won a local election in the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg.
Ryyan Alshebl, who fled his hometown of As Suwayda in Syria eight years ago, ran as an independent candidate in the municipality of Ostelsheim. He won 55.41 percent of the vote on Sunday, beating two German candidates, Marco Strauss and Mathias Fey.
Residents cheered the 29-year-old as he celebrated his victory, a win he described as “sensational”, German local broadcaster SWR reported on Monday.
“Today, Ostelsheim has sent an example of open-mindedness and cosmopolitanism to the whole of Germany,” he said, according to German public broadcaster ZDF. “That is not something that is taken for granted in a conservative rural region.”
Alshebl’s first call after his victory was to his mother in Syria, who was overjoyed by the news, SWR reported.
According to the Baden-Württemberg Association of Municipalities, Alshebl is the first man of Syrian origin to run for and be elected mayor. He will take office in June.
The residents of Ostelsheim welcomed their new mayor with joy. “The fairy tale has come true and the ideal man has become our mayor,” Annette Keck, who lives in the village, told SWR.
Strauss, one of his opponents, congratulated Alshebl. “I wish you good luck and at the same time ask you to support Mr. Alshebl, our common Ostelsheim,” he wrote on Facebook.
According to Manne Lucha, the state’s Minister for Integration, Ryyan Alshebl’s victory proves that diversity is an integral part of Baden-Württemberg. “I would be very happy if Ryyan Alshebl’s election would encourage more people with a migration background to run for office,” he said.
Not everyone was so warm to the 29-year-old. According to ZDF, the Syrian received hateful comments during his election campaign.
The young politician went from house to house to promote his election programme and “the experiences were mostly positive”, but there was also a minority of far-right voters in Ostelsheim who did not want to accept him because of his Syrian roots, Alshebl told ZDF.
Born to a schoolteacher father and an agricultural engineer in Syria, Alshebl described his life as carefree until he was 20, according to his campaign website.
At the time, anti-government protests that began in 2011 quickly escalated into a chaotic war. The fighting and the rise of ISIS forced 10.6 million people from their homes by the end of 2015, about half of Syria’s pre-war population.
Alshebl was faced with the dilemma of being drafted into the Syrian army or leaving the country, according to his website.
While many Syrians have been internally displaced or fled to countries in the region, others, like Alshebl, have made the dangerous journey to Europe. He was 21 at the time and said he crossed the border from Turkey to the Greek island of Lesbos in a rubber dinghy.
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel implemented a brief open-door policy in 2015 that saw the country take in around 1.2 million asylum seekers over the next few years, including Alshebl.
The move sparked a backlash in Germany and the sudden growth of the far-right anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the summer of 2015.
Once in Germany, Alshebl lived near Ostelsheim and said at the time that he felt “there was only one thing to do: get back on your feet quickly and start investing quickly in your own future.”
For seven years, he has worked in the municipal administration of Althengstett, a neighboring town. He has drawn on his experience, he said during his campaign, and made digital access to public administration services one of his priorities. Flexible childcare and climate protection are also on his agenda.
Alshebl, who is a member of the Green Party and now has German citizenship, promised during his campaign that once elected mayor he would move to Ostelsheim.
cnn
