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Berlin Mayor Wegner Defends Blackout Response at Citizen Forum

He proposes rapid camera surveillance of critical grid sites to bolster security.

Overview

  • Wegner declined to apologize for his actions during the outage and said he remained reachable by phone even during an hour of tennis on January 3.
  • Audience reactions were split, with some attendees demanding contrition and others applauding calls to stop what they described as excessive media criticism.
  • He said Berlin aims to install video monitoring at key power network points as soon as next week.
  • He urged reforms that would allow the governing mayor to declare a major incident and co-lead the central crisis staff with the interior senator.
  • The blackout followed a suspected arson attack linked by officials to left‑wing extremists, leaving about 100,000 people without power until January 7, and the Senate is set to discuss the response on Tuesday.