Following bouts of criticism from competing parties as well as his own party, the CDU, Kai Wegner, the governing mayor of Berlin, has decided not to run for reelection this September. Harald Burkart (CDU), the head of the young union (JU) in Berlin, a youth organisation for the CDU, also called on the Governing Mayor to withdraw his candidacy for the CDU’s top spot in the upcoming state elections.
In January, Wegner drew mass criticism after admitting to journalists that he was playing tennis on the first day of a major blackout. The blackout affected 100,000 people in the city and left homes, hospitals and nursing homes without power. Wegner insisted that he needed time to “clear his head” and that he remained reachable over the phone to deal with the crisis.
Having previously stated that he was in communication with the chancellor Friedrich Merz on the day of the blackout, their call logs were called into question. A spokesperson from the Chancellor’s office said “as far as can be determined, no personal conversation with the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Wegner” took place. Merz, the Federal Chancellor, said that he personally “does not recall such a phone call”.
The CDU has now fallen to fourth place in the polls, sitting behind the socialist Die Linke, the environmentalist Die Grüne, and the far-right AfD. It is unclear who will run for the CDU in the upcoming election.
