28 May 2019; DW: Centenarian Lisel Heise has secured a spot on the town council in a small village in western Germany. A passionate swimmer, she decided to stand for election in part to reopen the local swimming pool.
It's never too late to get into politics.
Lisel Heise, a 100-year-old former teacher, has been elected to the town council in Kirchheimbolanden, a town of 8,000 residents in the western German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Heise, part of a local grassroots group called Wir für Kibo (roughly, We for Kirchheimbolanden), got the most votes in Sunday's local election. She will serve as the group's spokeswoman in parliament.
Critic of Brexit, fan of Macron
In the runup to the local and European elections in Kirchheimbolanden, Heise stressed that advocating for political change had nothing to do with age.
"Politics has developed from humanism to capitalism," said Heise, a critic of Brexit and a fan of French President Emmanuel Macron's plans for a more deeply integrated European Union.
Heise decided to stand for town council in part to reopen the town's public pool, which closed in 2011. For her, swimming is an "elixir of life."
She also wants to establish a kind of youth club for children to play, entertain and make music. "The youth has been pushed into second place here," she said.
