Berlin: Wegner becomes the new mayor in the third ballot

Failed twice
It worked the third time: CDU politician Wegner new mayor of Berlin

What a drama: In the third round of voting, CDU politician Kai Wegner was elected governing mayor of Berlin on Thursday, having failed twice before. The background was possibly the resentment in the SPD about the new alliance with the Christian Democrats. The previous Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) had terminated the coalition with the Greens and Left after an election defeat in February and renounced the Red Town Hall. The SPD members just supported this – but initially not all MPs of the new black-red coalition.

The CDU and SPD together have 86 of the 159 mandates in parliament. In the first ballot, Wegner received just 71 yes votes – 15 fewer than the government alliance had calculated. It was tighter in the second ballot: 79 yes votes to 79 no votes. But still no absolute majority of at least 80 votes – and still a lot of dissenters. A major setback for Wegner and Giffey at the beginning of their desired collaboration. In the third ballot, he got the required majority and 86 votes.

There were crisis meetings between the elections. In the case of the Social Democrats, 32 MPs are said to have spoken out in favor of Wegner in a test vote, only two against him. In the case of the CDU, all group members are said to have been in favor of Wegner. When the secret ballot turned out differently in the second ballot, the parliamentary session was interrupted for an hour and a half, presumably to bring everyone into line.

Difficulties in Wegner’s election had not been ruled out in advance – but that it would be so thick? “This dimension really surprised me, I didn’t expect that,” said CDU politician Falko Liecke. Green parliamentary group leader Werner Graf, who will be in the opposition in the future, spoke of a “disastrous start” for the planned black-red government and pointed to the rest of the legislature: “It’s bad for Berlin because there will be no stable majority in the coming years three and a half years – it doesn’t matter how the third ballot ends.”

Giffey dares to switch to black and red

The initial situation: Because there were serious glitches in the 2021 House of Representatives election, it had to be repeated in February 2023. The winner of the election was the CDU with a good 28 percent, while the SPD of the previous governing mayor Giffey fell to just over 18 percent. Mathematically, the previous alliance of SPD, Greens and Left could have continued to govern.

But Giffey dared to switch to black and red for the rest of the legislative period until 2026, with the SPD as a junior partner. Giffey hopes this is how her party consolidates. Many in the SPD see things differently. Many left-wing Social Democrats accuse Wegner of intending to play a backwards role, especially in integration and migration policy.

The controversy surrounding the riots on New Year’s Eve in the Neukölln district with attacks on rescue workers serves as evidence. Wegner’s CDU was criticized for asking the criminals identified for their first names, probably in the expectation that they were immigrants. However, the accusation of racism from the left did not prevent Wegner from winning the election.

Wegner benefits from dissatisfied Berliners

Wegner is not well known in the capital either, let alone nationwide. The trained insurance salesman was born in Berlin-Spandau. In 1989 he joined the Junge Union, the youth organization of the CDU. In 1995 he became a district councilor in Spandau and in 1999 a member of the Berlin House of Representatives. From 2005 to 2021 he sat in the Bundestag for the CDU, without being remembered very concisely.

In 2019, the Berlin CDU elected him state chairman and in 2021 its top candidate. In the 2021 House of Representatives election, Wegner and his party only came third. Only the repeat election brought him to first place.

Wegner benefited from a great dissatisfaction – many capital city residents are annoyed that their administration is not working well. The icing on the cake for many was that the election had to be repeated in its entirety due to serious shortcomings.

In his own words, Wegner sees the coalition with the SPD as a marriage of convenience. Outwardly, his party is united behind him. A CDU state party conference approved the coalition agreement without a dissenting vote. Among other things, a climate protection program worth billions, administrative reform, better equipment for the police and fire brigade and significant progress in housing construction are agreed in it. Wegner wants to make digitization and administrative modernization a top priority.

Third ballot

For the election of the new Governing Mayor of Berlin, a third ballot was pending after two failed ballots for Kai Wegner (CDU). In the first two elections in the Berlin House of Representatives, at least the majority of the 159 MP votes, i.e. 80 yes votes, were required. From the third ballot, a candidate is elected if he receives more votes than an opposing candidate or more yes votes than no votes. The number of abstentions does not matter. A spokesman for the House of Representatives previously said that more than three rounds of voting are also possible.

Literally, Article 56 of the Berlin Constitution states: “The Governing Mayor is elected by a majority of the members of the House of Representatives. If an election pursuant to sentence 1 does not take place, a second ballot takes place. If the election does not take place in this ballot either, then whoever receives the most votes in a subsequent ballot is elected.”

The former Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit (SPD) was only re-elected in the second ballot in 2006 with the narrowest conceivable majority of one vote. Wowereit failed in the first ballot. He would not have made a third ballot, he said at the time.

The most spectacular rebuff in the election for head of government in March 2005 was Heide Simonis (SPD) in Schleswig-Holstein. She failed four rounds of voting and then did not stand again. She wanted to form a red-green coalition with the help of the South Schleswig Voters’ Association (SSW). This had exactly the 35 votes required for the election in the Kiel state parliament – but Simonis only received 34 each. The dissenter was later referred to as the “Heide murderer”.

Note: This article has been updated and supplemented.

rw / mkb / cl
DPA