Berlin CDU Nominates Kai Wegner with 92.6 Percent as Lead Candidate for State Election

Wegner has been Governing Mayor of Berlin since 2023 and leads a coalition of the CDU and SPD. With his taking office, he became the first Christian Democratic head of government of the capital in more than two decades. In the previous state election in February 2023, the CDU under his leadership had received 28.2 percent of the vote and had become the strongest force.

Track Record of the Black-Red Coalition

In his more than hour-long speech, which was met with long-lasting applause, Wegner struck a positive balance of the black-red government's time in office. He described the past three years as successful and pointed to the adopted administrative reform, 80,000 newly built apartments in the current legislative term, and shorter waiting times at the citizens' offices. Looking ahead to election day on September 20, Wegner spoke of a fateful election ("Schicksalswahl"). When asked whether he wanted to remain Governing Mayor, he answered with the sentence: "Ich will Regierender Bürgermeister bleiben - was denn sonst!"

On substance, Wegner opted for continuity: He announced his intention to realize the 17th construction section of the A100 and spoke out in favor of additional building on the edge of Tempelhofer Feld. He categorically ruled out expropriations of housing. At the same time, he appealed for unity within his own party, whose poll numbers currently lie between 19 and 20 percent and thus well below the 2023 result. Should this trend be confirmed, the previous coalition of CDU and SPD would no longer achieve a majority in the state parliament.

Less Support Than in Previous Nominations

The support at the party convention was lower than in previous nominations. In November 2022, Wegner had been elected without rival candidates and without discernible votes against him - with one abstention. In 2021, he had received around 90 percent in a secret ballot. Now, surprisingly, Wolfram Wickert, a delegate from the Mitte district association, declared his rival candidacy, which prompted the chairman of the Tagesspiegel, Lorenz Maroldt, to note that the convention had to be interrupted for the votes to be counted.

Aside from the personnel decision, the Berlin CDU's election program was adopted at the party convention. Wegner combined his programmatic speech with the appeal not to endanger what had been achieved. Looking ahead to the upcoming election, he said: "Ich glaube, diese Wahl ist eine Schicksalswahl." The CDU was standing behind him, it was said beforehand from the party, even though the Governing Mayor had come in for criticism in recent months over his crisis management during a large-scale power outage in parts of the capital. On the first day of the outage, Wegner had not appeared in the affected neighborhoods and had played tennis, which he initially did not mention.

Criticism of Crisis Management and Subsidy Scandal

In addition, a subsidy scandal is in the air, about which Wegner stated that he had not been aware of the relevant details. Also the subject of debate is the alleged timing of the start of his private relationship with Education Senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch. According to Tagesspiegel information, Günther-Wünsch was also present at an "Arbeitstreffen zu Themen der Luftverkehrsbranche" in August 2024, at which Wegner - by his own account - claims to have gotten to know the later short-term State Secretary Matthias Hundt. Hundt had previously fallen into disrepute in the CDU-led Saxon state government and had failed in the selection process for an application in Dresden. The public prosecutor's office is investigating him on suspicion of insolvency offenses. The now 53-year-old Wegner had referred to Hundt's expertise and his "sehr beeindruckenden" résumé when hiring him.

Personnel consequences have already had to be drawn by Wegner several times during his time in office. Alone eleven departures at senate and state secretary level are said to have been recorded, of which only one on the SPD side. In the Hundt case, for example, a State Secretary for Digitalization was dismissed after just over two months in office. The predecessor in the post, State Secretary Martina Klement, had moved to Brandenburg. A connection between Wegner, Günther-Wünsch, and Hundt also apparently exists from earlier: At an education event in December 2022 titled "Was Berlin von Sachsen lernen kann," they already met. Hundt subsequently thanked on LinkedIn "für den sehr intensiven Tag und die lebhaften Diskussionen" especially Günther-Wünsch - who acknowledged the post with a "Gefällt mir" symbol.

Background: Repeat Election and Starting Position

The background to the early new election is a decision by the Berlin Constitutional Court. The court had determined that the 2021 election had to be repeated due to serious electoral errors. The regular legislative period would thus end prematurely. The CDU is running under these conditions as the party of the incumbent head of government - a circumstance that favors Wegner's strategy of using the incumbency bonus, but at the same time makes the campaign vulnerable to recurring criticism of leadership and personnel decisions.

The starting position for the campaign is thus multi-layered: The CDU continues to lead in the polls, albeit with a significant gap to the 2023 result. At the same time, the black-red coalition faces the question of whether the previous majority can be defended. The SPD is running with state chairman Steffen Krach, the Left with deputy faction chair Elif Eralp, the AfD with faction chair Kristin Brinker, and the Greens with faction chair Werner Graf as candidate for the office of Governing Mayor.

Programmatic Priorities and Outlook

Wegner himself had announced a good three years ago that he wanted to bring new momentum to Berlin politics. He placed increased emphasis on external expertise and diversity, rather than on loyal party friends. He named the administrative reform as one of the right priorities. With the nomination in Neukölln, the formal starting shot now falls for a campaign in which, from the incumbent's perspective, "um alles" is at stake.

For the CDU, the result of 92.6 percent means on the one hand a clear endorsement of the incumbent, but on the other hand also a visibly shrunken unity compared to previous nominations. In his speech, Wegner pointed to the support: "92,6 Prozent in geheimer Abstimmung - das ist Unterstützung." Referring to the reform work already delivered and the administrative reform, he said: "Wir haben geliefert. Die Verwaltungsreform ist beschlossen."

The further course of the campaign will show whether Berliners attach more weight to the track record of the black-red coalition than to the critical points of the recent past. What is certain is that Wegner is heading into the election on September 20 as the CDU's lead candidate - with the claim of remaining Governing Mayor.