Capital: fuss about mayoral election: Berlin’s Senate begins work

Capital city
Eddy about the mayoral election: Berlin’s Senate begins work

After the mayoral election at the third attempt, the new Berlin Senate wants to go back to day-to-day business. The ten senators will meet today for a first working session. In addition, the official handovers are to take place.

The members of the Senate were sworn in yesterday after hours of delay. The reason was a voting crime for the post of governing mayor. CDU state leader Kai Wegner only achieved a majority in the House of Representatives in the third ballot, to move into the Red City Hall as the successor to Franziska Giffey (SPD) and as the first CDU politician since Eberhard Diepgen in 2001.

Mutual finger pointing

The 50-year-old had failed twice before – although the CDU and its coalition partner SPD had enough mandates. Since the AfD declared that it had voted for Wegner in the third ballot, there was speculation that the new head of government could have depended on the party’s support.

Representatives of the CDU and SPD rejected this. Politicians from both parties initially blamed each other for the election debacle – they suspected dissenters in the ranks of the other party. In the SPD, for example, there were major reservations about the so-called grand coalition. Violent criticism of the two new governing parties came from the Greens and the Left.

“The fact that you need three rounds of voting, that you cause such a disaster and that the stigma remains, that there is a possibility that you were elected with votes from the AfD, that is devastating,” said political scientist Albrecht von Lucke in the ARD “Daily Topics”. “In this respect, there must be talk of a brilliant false start.”

Wegner: “AfD wants to cause chaos”

Wegner said in the RBB: “Of course I would have wished that differently. We would have wished that differently from the coalition of CDU and SPD.” But the third ballot is constitutionally regulated: “It’s regular.” Therefore he is happy. He has a coalition majority with 86 votes.

Referring to the AfD, Wegner said: “I think the AfD wants to create chaos here.” With the best will in the world, he couldn’t imagine “that the AfD would elect a governing mayor who would bring the biggest AfD hunter from all of Germany to Berlin.” Wegner is likely to refer to the new Justice Senator Felor Badenberg, who previously worked in the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

The general secretary of the federal CDU, Mario Czaja, described the actions of the AfD as a “transparent maneuver” on “Welt TV”. “That serves to divide again and sow resentment. But I don’t think this government can be dissuaded.” Berlin’s SPD state and parliamentary group leader, Raed Saleh, told the German Press Agency: “In the end, it worked with our own majority of 86 votes.” The fact that three ballots were necessary was not nice. Of course he would have wished for something else.

Opposition does not skimp on criticism

Greens Federal Chairwoman Ricarda Lang wrote on Twitter: “The SPD and the CDU in Berlin have done great damage to the city, democracy and the political culture today by going into the third ballot without a secure majority – and thus allowing that the AfD can claim Wegner’s election for itself.” Jan Korte, leader of the Left parliamentary group in the Bundestag, wrote: “Wegner has no scruples about being sworn in, despite the suspicion of being the governing mayor by the grace of the AfD fascists.”

The vote brought back memories of the election of former mayor Klaus Wowereit (SPD) in 2006. At that time, the SPD politician was only re-elected in the second ballot with the narrowest majority of one vote. Parallels were also drawn with the election of the FDP politician Thomas Kemmerich in Thuringia, who briefly became Prime Minister of Thuringia in 2020 with votes from the CDU and AfD.

dpa