Overview
- On Friday, July 10, Regierender Bürgermeister Kai Wegner announced he will no longer be the CDU’s Spitzenkandidat for the September Abgeordnetenhaus election.
- Wegner said he will stay in office as mayor until a new Senat is formed and signalled he will step down as CDU state chair to clear the way for a new campaign lead.
- The withdrawal follows reporting and a legal disclosure showing Wegner gave incorrect accounts of his crisis actions during the January blackout, including that his Senatskanzlei confirmed he did not conduct the claimed early‑morning crisis phone calls.
- Berlin CDU Kreisvorsitzende have moved to propose Finance and Culture Senator Stefan Evers as the likely replacement subject to confirmation by the Landesvorstand, forcing a rapid rewrite of campaign messaging and materials.
- Media and official clarifications keep surfacing — for example a Bundeskanzleramt statement disputing a reported call with Chancellor Merz — and the party now faces near‑term tests in internal ratification, voter trust and coalition math given polls showing the CDU at about 17 percent.