Kai Wegner (CDU) has been criticized for possibly being elected governing mayor of Berlin with the votes of the AfD.Image: dpa / Christoph Soeder
Politics
It was a thriller: CDU politician Kai Wegner failed in the first two ballots. Although his grand coalition has a majority in the Berlin House of Representatives, he did not get enough votes in the election for the capital’s new governing mayor.
But it worked out in round three. Here the hurdles are lower, a simple majority is sufficient. The 50-year-old was finally elected with 86 votes. But the joy didn’t last long. As soon as the result was known, criticism followed from all sides.
The reason: In the voting round, the AfD their support for Wegner. Whether – and if so, how many – AfD MPs ultimately voted for the CDU man cannot be said with certainty given the secret ballot. For many, however, the mere possibility that Wegner’s majority is based on votes from the AfD represents a dam bursting.
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Green politician Erik Marquardt doubts the coalition
Green politician Erik Marquardt calls Wegner’s election a “political earthquake” on Twitter. He writes:
“It is unclear whether the coalition has a majority, whether Wegner only came into office through right-wing enemies of democracy. This is the dam bursting at the CDU and the SPD is there. You can’t seriously want to govern like this, Wegner.”
Marquardt considers it impossible that all AfD MPs voted for the CDU candidate. Whether and how many politicians of the right-wing party would have voted for Wegner is completely unclear. “An adjournment would have given GroKo the opportunity to get off to a clean start, but it opted for a shambles,” summarizes the Green.
His party friend Renate Künast assesses the situation in a similar way. “Wegner is now attached to the AfD flaw,” she writes and is shocked.
Left-wing politician Carsten Schatz calls the election day a “day of shame” for Berlin. And the head of the Berlin Jusos, Sinem Taşan-Funke, is visibly dissatisfied. On Twitter she writes:
“Some days one is glad to know that the sun goes down in the evening. What an unworthy day for my city!”
Even on the day after the election debacle, the Berlin Jusos insisted: After the second ballot, it should have been over for the time being. “The current outcome has damaged Berlin and is not worthy of our city,” explains the SPD youth organization. And continues:
“The AfD is constantly trying to undermine democratic processes with their claims. We refuse to jump over their baton. Nevertheless, it was completely foreseeable what would happen in the third ballot and it should have been prevented.”
The Berlin Jusos around Sinem Taşan-Funke and Peter Maass have spoken out clearly against the GroKo.Image: dpa / Fabian Sommer
Wegner himself said on the evening of his election that he would not be deterred. “I believe that the AfD wants to create chaos here,” said the new head of government in an RBB special. And further:
“She wants to use that. Because I can’t imagine with the best will in the world that the AfD would elect a governing mayor who would bring the biggest AfD hunter from all of Germany to Berlin. So it’s a tactic, a strategy.”
With “AfD-Jägerin” Wegner is likely to refer to the new Senator for Justice Felor Badenberg, who previously worked in the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and also took care of the classification of the AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist.
The AfD itself issued a press release on its election decision. The decision to support Wegner was not easy, but the parliamentary group is facing up to the “entire city” responsibility, it says. And further:
“The obvious inability to create reliable majorities shows how important the AfD can be as a stabilizing factor in a government majority. It’s time for the CDU in particular to recognize this.”
(With material from the dpa)
