Overview
- On Friday, July 10, Kai Wegner announced at a press conference that he will not run as the CDU’s Spitzenkandidat in the September 20 Abgeordnetenhaus election.
- Wegner said he will remain Regierender Bürgermeister until a new senate is formed but indicated he will relinquish the CDU Landesvorsitz and will not accept a future senator post.
- The decision followed legal and press scrutiny that forced the Senatskanzlei to confirm Wegner had not made the early-morning official crisis calls he had claimed for January 3 and that his account of that day included misleading statements.
- CDU Kreisvorsitzenden signalled they will propose Finance and Culture Senator Stefan Evers as the party’s new lead candidate and the Landesvorstand must now formalise succession and campaign leadership.
- The party’s collapse in polls to about 17 percent has compressed the race weeks before the vote and raises the prospect that Berlin’s next government could be led by a left-leaning coalition rather than a CDU-led administration.