Kai Wegner failed in the first round in his attempt to become the new Governing Mayor of Berlin. The Christian Democrat did not get the required absolute majority of 80 votes in the secret ballot, even though the coalition of CDU and SPD together has 86 MPs. Wegner only got 71 yes votes.
The second ballot is now eagerly awaited. If there is no absolute majority there either, the candidate who receives the most votes will prevail in the third round. By then at the latest, Wegner should be elected and thus become the first CDU politician to be the governing mayor of the capital in more than 20 years. Before that, Eberhard Diepgen was the last Christian Democrat to head the capital until 2001.
After there were numerous organizational glitches in the regular parliamentary elections in autumn 2021, the CDU gained significantly in the repeat election in February and became the strongest party with 28.2 percent. The SPD came in second place, just ahead of the Greens: Both received 18.4 percent of the votes, but 53 people voted more for the Social Democrats than for the Greens.
The previous Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) is to become Economics Senator in the new Senate. After the election, she had agreed to give up her post for the coalition with the CDU, which she would probably have retained if the previous red-green-red alliance had continued – this coalition would still have had a majority. In the SPD, the alliance with the CDU is controversial. In a member vote, the supporters of the coalition only narrowly prevailed with 54.3 percent. There were significantly fewer public discussions at the CDU: There, the delegates voted unanimously for the coalition agreement.