09 July 2023; MEMO: A German town has sworn in a former Syrian refugee as its mayor, in the first case of a German municipality voting in someone who had arrived in the country as a refugee.
At a municipal council meeting on Friday evening, former Syrian refugee Ryyan Alshebl took the oath as mayor of Ostelsheim, a town 30 kilometres from the southern city of Stuttgart.
The event came after citizens of the town's 2,500-strong Swabian community elected him as the new head of the town hall back in April, winning a clear majority of 55.4 per cent of the vote.
Alshebl has attained the position around eight years after fleeing Syria at the age of 21 with a group of friends during the Syrian civil war, in an ordeal which saw him travel across the Mediterranean and taking one of the usual refugee routes at the time until he arrived in Germany.
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There, according to German media outlet Deutsche Welle (DW), Alshebl – who reportedly studied banking and finance in Syria – learnt the German language and did an internship at the Althengstett town hall near Ostelheim.
He then received his German citizenship while working at that local council, before running for the office of mayor of Ostelheim and being voted in three months ago.
According to the Young Mayors Network in Germany, there is no other refugee who has come to Germany and become the mayor of a German municipality that it is aware of, confirming Alshebl as the first to do so.
The refugee mayor was reported to have told the Reuters news agency back in April that Germany is "a liberal country. Whoever is ready to do something here can get the opportunity to do so."
