Berlin
Kai Wegner initially failed in the election as the new Governing Mayor of Berlin. He missed the absolute majority.
The CDU politician Kai Wegner failed in the election for the new Governing Mayor of Berlin in the first ballot. The 50-year-old clearly missed the necessary absolute majority of 80 votes.
The 50-year-old initially received only 71 of 159 votes cast. Now Wegner must try to get the quorum in one second ballot to reach. The new alliance of CDU and SPD has a total of 86 MPs. If Wegner also misses the absolute majority in the second ballot, further ballots are possible. A majority of the votes cast would then be sufficient for an election.
The session of House of Representatives was initially paused for half an hour after the first ballot. The factions withdrew for deliberations.
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Wegner won the election with a car and security campaign
Wegner had the formation of a in the past few weeks black-red coalition driven. He would be the first governing mayor from the ranks of the CDU after Eberhard Diepgen, who held this office until June 2001. The new coalition of the CDU and SPD is intended to replace the alliance of SPD, Left and Greens that had governed Berlin since 2016.
The CDU emerged as the strongest party from the repeat elections in February, relegating the SPD and the Greens to second place. Especially in the outskirts of Berlin, the CDU black dominated on the ballot, while the city center mostly voted green. Observers attribute credit for the landslide victory to two main factors: The political momentum that was to the detriment of the SPD as a result of the botched chaos election in 2021 – and Kai Wegner.
Wegner also owes his election victory to his political route. With his commitment to car traffic and parking in the city center, he had primarily campaigned against the Greens. He was also able to draw political profit from the New Year’s Eve riots, which the red-green-red state government sparked a nationwide debate about the state of security of the Capital city collapsed.
Wegner’s construction sites: administrative reform, housing, mobility, security
On Wednesday, the CDU and SPD signed their coalition agreement and thus set the course for the grand coalition in Berlin. Great challenges await Wegner’s Senate. He has declared the major administrative reform, which was identified as the reason for Berlin’s chaotic image, to be a top priority.
In addition, black and red want to massively boost housing construction and thus combat rising rents. At the same time, investments worth billions should climate protection push. The projects are made more difficult by the increasing consequential costs of various crises. The new head of government only has three and a half years to implement the project.
Step into the second limb Franziska Giffey (SPD), which took over the Red Town Hall in 2021 and is now taking over the economics department in the CDU-led Senate. In the election campaign, Kai Wegner had meanwhile taken a rough tone against the former Federal Minister for Family Affairs. As soon as the Christian Democratic landslide victory was on record, the Berlin CDU veteran showed his friendly side again. (sec/dpa)
You can read more about the formation of a government in Berlin in the “Berliner Morgenpost”.
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