The city council election in the Thuringian town of Steinbach-Hallenberg on 26 May 2024 must be repeated due to a breach of the neutrality requirement in the hot phase of the election campaign. This has now been decided by the Meiningen Administrative Court. The mayor had made comments in private media immediately before the election and in the foreword to an official gazette of the town.

It is true that a mayor is allowed to conduct public relations work. During election periods, however, this is subject to the standards of a strict neutrality requirement. Thus, statements are not permitted if they are made „with a recognisable reference to the office of mayor in order to lend them a special credibility or weighting resulting from the authority of the office“, according to the press release on the decision, which is not yet legally binding. In the opinion of the court, the mayor's statements immediately before the election influenced the election result and constitute a violation of the neutrality requirement.