Stefan Evers Takes Over CDU Lead Candidacy in Berlin and Puts Distance from Wegner

Background: Wegner's Withdrawal After the Power Crisis

Wegner had cited his crisis management during a multi-day power outage in Berlin in January 2026 as the reason for his withdrawal. Five CDU members had previously urged Wegner in an open letter to resign both as Governing Mayor and as lead candidate. Months of discussions about contradictory and false statements regarding his crisis management had accompanied the withdrawal; Wegner was accused, among other things, of having said something untrue. According to the assessment of political scientist von Lucke, however, Wegner's withdrawal is not attributable to communication errors but to "egregious failure" and stands symbolically for the state of the Berlin CDU.

Evers, who has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2011, has belonged to the black-red state government under Wegner as Finance Senator since the 2023 election victory. Following the resignation of the non-partisan Culture Senator Sarah Wedl-Wilson at the end of April, he additionally took on responsibility for the culture administration. Evers is thus currently Berlin's Finance and Culture Senator as well as Mayor, as the deputy of the Governing Mayor in Berlin is called. In his new role, he also takes over the CDU state chair on an acting basis; the formal election of a new state chair is to take place at a party convention.

Evers' First Words: Differentiation from Wegner

In an initial reaction following his nomination, Evers showed awareness of the challenge: "Die Situation, in der wir stehen, ist keine einfache." Regarding his predecessor, he said: "Wegner habe sich von der Spitzenkandidatur zurückgezogen, um den Blick für das Wesentliche freizugeben." For this, they wanted "gemeinsam die CDU Berlin bestmöglich aufstellen." Compared with his predecessor in office, Evers distinguished himself with clear differentiation: "Wir sind sehr unterschiedliche Typen. Zunächst einmal bin ich nicht Kai Wegner." He also wants to make this personal style visible in the election campaign.

On substance, Evers announced that he would do everything to prevent a left-green government in Berlin. He criticized the SPD and the Greens for lacking distance from the Left Party and pointed to a "zunehmendes Antisemitismusproblem", the toleration of "Polizeihassern", as well as fundamentals of the social market economy being called into question by the Left. Evers also advocated consistent enforcement of tenancy law: "Ich glaube, wir haben ein funktionierendes Mietrecht, man muss es aber auch durchsetzen." He had previously already criticized free school meals in Berlin, an issue that SPD parliamentary group leader Raed Saleh had repeatedly championed.

Content Priorities: Tenancy Law, School Meals, Antisemitism

The programmatic focus was supported within the party. CDU presidium member Falko Liecke stated that the party had done everything to get its programmatic message across again, "anstatt über Telefonate und SMS zu reden". The nomination of Evers was "eine klare Botschaft, dass die Partei auch in Krisensituationen schnell handeln könne". CDU presidium member Jan-Marco Luczak described Evers as a "scharfen Analytiker" and "genau der Richtige, um im Wahlkampf die Unterschiede zwischen den Parteien herauszuarbeiten".

In the opposition, the personnel decision and programmatic plans met with criticism. AfD lead candidate Kirstin Brinker pointed out that Evers had already been Wegner's campaign manager and spoke of a continuing "CDU-System". SPD lead candidate Steffen Krach, who met Evers on Monday evening in a special RBB broadcast for the first direct exchange of blows, accused Evers of embodying the "Wegner-System" and of having supported Wegner in the campaign and in the past months, "obwohl die ganze Stadt schon wusste, dass Kai Wegner keine Zukunft mehr hat". In the CDU one sees a "Rochade, einen echten Politikwechsel sehen wir nicht". Krach also reaffirmed his support for an opening clause to transfer the federal rent brake competence to the states and assured that with him in the Senate "keine Antisemiten geben werde". Krach said that the CDU's claim that the Left and the AfD are to be equated "spalte diese Stadt".

Headwind from Opposition and the Greens

The Berlin Greens also attacked Evers on substance. Bettina Jarasch, who stepped in for Werner Graf in the RBB round, accused Evers of "soziale Kälte" because of his proposal to require citizens' benefit recipients to perform community work. Jarasch had initially classified the proposal as "Zwangsarbeit", a term historically linked to the Nazi regime, and later refined it as "Pflichtarbeit". Evers himself had stated: "Bürgergeldempfänger sollen Zwangsarbeit machen, so ungefähr." The opposition also accuses Evers of always invoking sound budget policy in his speeches, "in der Praxis aber eine Rekordverschuldung in Berlin mitgetragen zu haben".

The personnel restructuring of the Berlin CDU also includes the party headquarters. The CDU state executive decided that Lukas Krieger will replace the previous Secretary General Ottilie Klein, who is stepping down. Krieger, a member of the Bundestag and CDU district chair of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, becomes acting new Secretary General on Evers' proposal; the decision was unanimous. The Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district association, of which Evers is chair, is thus also doubly represented in leading positions of the state party.

Polls and Starting Position Before the Election

The latest polls paint a difficult picture for the CDU ahead of the election on September 20. In the latest BerlinTrend by Infratest Dimap on behalf of rbb24 Abendschau and rbb 88.8, the CDU had slipped to fourth place with only 17 percent. In the most recent Infratest dimap poll for RBB, the Left Party was narrowly ahead with 20 percent, followed by the Greens (with 19 percent) and the AfD (with 18 percent). The repeat election is now just over two months away, exactly ten weeks before the election on September 20. The task for Evers will be to run the campaign in such a way that the CDU manages to leap to the top or at least back into the range of the strongest force.

Evers brings many years of political experience to this. The CDU politician was born in Herdecke in North Rhine-Westphalia, grew up in Paderborn and completed his Abitur there. He has lived in Berlin since 1999, where he studied law at the University of Potsdam. He then worked as a research assistant in the German Bundestag for the CDU members of parliament Friedhelm Ost and Werner Kuhn. He began his career in the state parliament in 2011 immediately as deputy parliamentary group leader and held this position until 2018. In the 2023 election he was significantly involved in the campaign that brought the CDU the victory; Wegner subsequently brought him into the state government as Finance Senator. When Wegner replaced Monika Grütters as state chair in 2019, he kept Evers in the position of Secretary General.

Biography: Experience from Administration and Campaigns

Personally, Evers is also perceived within the Berlin CDU as culturally interested and, among other things, as a film fan. He revealed to the Berliner Morgenpost that he regards Tierpark Friedrichsfelde as a magical place and that his favorite animals there are the red pandas. The CDU politician is gay and married. With taking on the lead candidacy, he now moves from the second row into the first row of Berlin state politics – and at the same time must deliver the programmatic answer to the accusations against his predecessor.

In the special RBB broadcast on Monday evening, moderated by Volker Wieprecht, Evers and SPD lead candidate Steffen Krach appeared together for the first time in a joint studio format. In addition to Evers and Krach, AfD lead candidate Kirstin Brinker participated as a studio guest, Left Party parliamentary group leader Tobias Schulze, who stepped in for Elif Eralp, and Bettina Jarasch of the Greens, who stepped in for Werner Graf. Schulze defended his party on the antisemitism issue: Whoever calls Israel's right to exist into question or glorifies or plays down October 7, "der gehört nicht in unsere Partei".

With the nomination of Evers, the Berlin CDU is primarily banking on continuity in administrative experience and