Next act in the Berlin political drama: The CDU candidate Kai Wegner needs three ballots to become the new governing mayor. And the AfD claims to have supported him. Scenes from a chaotic election day.
If things had gone according to plan, Berlin would have had a new Senate at 4 p.m. Kai Wegner would have been governing mayor long ago, the first Christian Democrat to hold this position in 22 years. At 1.30 p.m. he would have driven up to his new job, he would have climbed the main staircase in the Red City Hall and, according to the old Berlin tradition, a trellis of chimney sweeps would have given him luck. Then he would have named his senators and they would have been sworn in. But because it is now also a Berlin tradition that all sorts of things can go wrong here, Kai Wegner sits at 4:40 p.m. as a simple member of parliament in the House of Representatives and waits for the election result. For the third time that day.