Berlin CDU nominates Kai Wegner with 92.6 percent as lead candidate for House of Representatives election

Wickert runs as counter-candidate

The level of support is thus noticeably weaker than around three and a half years ago, when Wegner was first elected as Berlin's lead candidate in 2021 with around 90 percent of the votes. Nevertheless, the party assessed the result as a vote of confidence for its state chairman, who just over three years ago had provided Berlin with its first Christian Democratic head of government in more than two decades.

The background to the current debate is a series of crises and scandals that have weighed on Wegner in recent months. The focus is particularly on his handling of a large-scale power outage in parts of the capital. Its timeline has still not been fully clarified, according to reporting. Wegner was criticized, among other things, for not having appeared in the affected districts on the first day and instead playing tennis, without initially mentioning this. He says about it that "alles gesagt"; the report counters: "ist es nicht".

Crises and scandals in the background

The so-called funding scandal surrounding former short-term State Secretary Matthias Hundt is also weighing on the Governing Mayor. The public prosecutor's office is investigating Hundt on suspicion of insolvency offenses; in Dresden, he had previously failed in the selection process for a similar position and had unsuccessfully taken the matter to court. Wegner says he got to know the man in August 2024 in Berlin at an "Arbeitstreffen zu Themen der Luftverkehrsbranche", when a successor was being sought at the beginning of 2026 for State Secretary Martina Klement, who had moved to Brandenburg. He claims to have known nothing of any of this when he hired Hundt and pointed to his expertise and his "sehr beeindruckenden" résumé.

At the same time, a controversy had arisen over the alleged timing of the start of the private relationship with Education Senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch. It is documented that Wegner and Günther-Wünsch already met Hundt in December 2022 at an education event, where he gave a talk on the topic "Was Berlin von Sachsen lernen kann". According to Tagesspiegel information, Günther-Wünsch was also present at a later meeting with Hundt; Hundt subsequently thanked her on LinkedIn "für den sehr intensiven Tag und die lebhaften Diskussionen", and she acknowledged the post with a "Gefällt mir" symbol.

Personnel turnover and opposition

According to his own statements, Wegner had to accept or initiate eleven departures at the senate and state secretary level; only one of these affected the SPD, with the rest falling to the CDU. The opposition criticized him in particular for his handling of the appointment to the state secretary post for digitalization, from which he dismissed the appointee after only a little more than two months. Tagesspiegel publisher Lorenz Maroldt commented on the situation with the words: "Vielleicht war Wegner zu selbstsicher geworden und ist jetzt umso verunsicherter".

On the substance, Wegner drew a positive balance of the black-red coalition at the party conference: "Wir sind erfolgreich gewesen. Es waren drei gute Jahre für Berlin". Reference was made, among other things, to 80,000 newly built apartments in the current legislative term. The administrative reform has been decided, and there are clear responsibilities. He also announced: "Wir werden den 17. Bauabschnitt der A100 realisieren!".

Substantive priorities in the election campaign

On housing policy, he also drew a clear line: "Mit mir wird es Enteignungen von Wohnraum in Berlin definitiv nicht geben. Ich schließe das kategorisch aus". In doing so, he took a position against a project being discussed in the city and at the same time sought to bind his own voter groups.

Polls currently show a worse result for the CDU than in the last election: in the most recent surveys, the party stands at 19 to 20 percent. In the previous House of Representatives election in February 2023, the CDU under lead candidate Wegner had still reached 28.2 percent and thus become clearly the strongest force. Nevertheless, his party continues to lead the polls, even though the current CDU-SPD coalition would no longer have a majority according to the latest figures.

For the SPD, state chairman Steffen Krach is running as lead candidate. The Left is entering the election campaign with deputy faction chair Elif Eralp. The faction chair of the AfD, Kristin Brinker, is her party's candidate. For the Greens, faction chair Werner Graf is running for the office of Governing Mayor. The field of lead candidates for the election on 20 September is thus now complete.

Starting position in the 2026 election year

With Wegner's nomination, the decisive phase of the election campaign begins for the Berlin CDU. The state party conference in Berlin-Neukölln, held around three and a half months before election day, was also originally intended to send a signal of unity — despite the multitude of issues the Governing Mayor had to deal with in recent months.

At the same time, it remains open how the unresolved questions — the funding scandal, the unexplained timeline surrounding the power outage, and the Hundt affair — will develop by election day. The CDU has so far stood united behind its incumbent. Whether this will remain the case until the election on 20 September is considered one of the central open questions of the Berlin election campaign.