For the first time in more than 20 years, Berlin is expected to have a CDU politician as governing mayor. The 50-year-old Kai Wegner is standing for election in the House of Representatives as the successor to Franziska Giffey (SPD), who is to become Senator for Economics in the new Senate.
Wegner is at the head of a black-red government alliance that was formed after the repeat elections in February. In the event of an election, he would be the first governing mayor from the ranks of the CDU after Eberhard Diepgen, who held this office until June 2001. The new coalition of CDU and SPD replaces the alliance of SPD, Left and Greens that had governed Berlin since 2016.
In the secret ballot, an absolute majority is required in the first two ballots. With 159 MPs, that’s 80 votes. The new alliance of CDU and SPD has a total of 86 MPs. If there is no absolute majority in both ballots, the candidate who receives the most votes is elected in the third ballot.
re-election in February
If elected, Wegner will then officially take over official business in the Red City Hall and appoint the ten senators. The CDU and SPD each take over five Senate administrations. In the repeat election on February 12, the CDU was the strongest party with 28.2 percent. The SPD came in second, just ahead of the Greens, with both parties getting 18.4 percent.
Unlike the SPD, there had been no public discussions about the black-red alliance among the Berlin Christian Democrats. At a CDU party conference, the coalition agreement passed without a dissenting vote, while the SPD’s approval in a member vote was significantly lower at 54.3 percent.
The CDU emerged as the strongest party from the repeat elections in February and relegated the SPD and the Greens to their places. Giffey was then prepared to give up her position for the Black-Red coalition, which she would probably have retained if Red-Green-Red had continued – this coalition would still have had a majority. The vote in February had become necessary because there had been numerous organizational breakdowns in the regular parliamentary elections in autumn 2021.
