On Friday, Syrian Ryan Al-Shibl (29 years old) took the oath of office to become the mayor of the town of Ostelsheim in Germany, located north of the Black Forest, during a celebration of the town council. According to the German News Agency, Al-Shibl fled Syria eight years ago, and in April of this year, he was elected by the majority of the town's 2,500 residents as their mayor, with a support rate of 55.41% of the votes. The agency reported that Al-Shibl may be the first Syrian mayor in southwestern Germany.
According to the municipality council of Baden-Württemberg, no other individuals of Syrian origin have applied for the mayoral position in the state so far, and on the national level, the "Young Mayors Network" has not recorded any mayor appointed who arrived in Germany as a refugee in 2015. Some statistics indicate that the number of Syrian refugees in Germany is about one million people who fled their country after the ongoing crisis began in 2011.
