Berlin mayor quits race after blackout damages CDU prospects
Berlin's governing mayor has abandoned his re-election bid after a winter blackout that crippled thousands of businesses exposed deep unpopularity, dealing a fresh blow to Germany's conservative establishment ahead of crucial regional votes.
Kai Wegner announced on Friday that he will not seek another term as Berlin's governing mayor, handing the conservative CDU's lead candidate role to state finance minister Stefan Evers. The move follows relentless backlash over a severe January power outage that left approximately 45,000 homes and 2,200 businesses without electricity for nearly a week during a harsh winter.
Wegner's downfall stemmed from his actions on January 3, the day the crisis peaked. He remained at home and played tennis for an hour, rather than visiting the hardest-hit areas or his emergency office. Although he claimed to have been making phone calls throughout the day, leaked call logs published by Tagesspiegel showed no official calls were made before 12:45 pm.
The mayor acknowledged his missteps but defended the actual crisis management. "Yes, I made mistakes in communication," Wegner said, later admitting his explanations were "rubbish." He maintained that the city's response was effective, stating: "Everyone involved did a good job. We brought the crisis to an end a day and a half early."
The political damage, however, proved irreversible. Wegner said he stepped aside because the controversy made it impossible to govern. "I can no longer get my message out because another debate is overshadowing everything else," he said. His exit effectively reverses the CDU's historic 2023 victory, which saw conservatives take control of the traditionally left-leaning capital for the first time in decades.
A wider conservative crisis
Wegner's collapse mirrors the broader struggles of the federal CDU under Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Both leaders are grappling with dismal polling as Germany's economy stagnates and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) surges. The AfD currently holds commanding leads in two eastern states that also hold regional elections in September.
In Berlin, an early July poll showed the CDU had slumped to fourth place, trailing the far-left Die Linke, the Greens, and the AfD. The blackout's disruption to local commerce likely amplified voter frustration with a mayor who had pledged to modernise the city's notoriously dense bureaucracy. Wegner explicitly cited the threat of a left-wing government as his reason for yielding to Evers, hoping a new candidate could "prevent a left-wing alliance" led by Die Linke. The current CDU-SPD coalition is widely expected to fall far short of a majority in the September 20 vote.
