Wegner forgoes top candidacy: Berlin CDU faces personnel restart

The background to the withdrawal is an arson attack on Berlin's power grid on January 3, 2026, which left around 100,000 residents in the southwest of the capital without electricity for days in some cases. Wegner had initially stated that from 08:08 a.m. he had "locked himself away in the truest sense" in his home office and spent the day making crisis calls. "I did indeed begin making phone calls at 8:08 a.m. I spoke with the crisis teams, with Stromnetz," he said at the time in an interview with Welt TV.

"Tennis-Gate" and false statements

But this week, the "Tagesspiegel" quoted the Senate Chancellery as saying that Wegner had not made any official phone calls regarding the blackout before 12:45 p.m. on January 3. In fact, he had not picked up the phone until 12:45 p.m. — and it was with SPD Economics Senator Franziska Giffey, shortly before his tennis chat. "And that was also crap," Wegner conceded on Friday. "Yes, I made communicative mistakes," he added.

That Wegner had been on the tennis court that Saturday with his partner, Berlin Education Senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch (CDU), in order to "clear his head," had initially been forgiven. But the growing number of inconsistencies — summarized in the media as "Tennis-Gate" — and the uncovered falsehoods ultimately tipped the pressure over the edge.

Stefan Evers nominated as successor

Already on Friday evening, the CDU state executive board and the chairpersons of the twelve district associations met to discuss Wegner's candidacy, the election campaign and the chances in the House of Representatives election. According to AFP information from party circles, the district chairpersons nominated Finance Senator Stefan Evers as the new top candidate in the evening. "Eleven weeks are enough for a credible restart," reads a draft letter with a view to the election date.

Evers, who already holds a powerful role in the current Senate, additionally took over the cultural portfolio at the end of April after State Secretary for Culture Sarah Wedl-Wilson resigned in the funding scandal. "You can approach him on any topic and he gets right into it," Evers is praised by the CDU district chairperson of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Stephan Standfuß, in the Tagesspiegel. Wegner himself emphasized: "You know that I have worked together with Stefan Evers in a trusting manner for many years."

Evers was already deputy faction chairperson of the Berlin CDU until 2018, and has been Secretary General since 2016. He played a key role in shaping the election campaign ahead of the 2023 Berlin state election — the repeat of the chaotic 2021 election. "Based on the last campaign, we know that he has fresh ideas for the city and works with great enthusiasm for Berlin," reads the draft letter.

CDU in fourth place in polls

Wegner had been confirmed as top candidate in June with just under 93 percent of the votes — despite growing criticism. "Then many said: 'He won't be the top candidate.' But I became one anyway," Wegner said on Friday. Now, however, after his party's plunge in the polls to 17 percent and a further loss of credibility, the moment for a restart seemed to have come.

In the current "Berlin-Trend" by Infratest dimap, the CDU is only in fourth place — behind the Left Party at 20 percent, the Greens at 19 percent and the AfD at 18 percent. The coalition partner SPD is even at just 13 percent. "According to RBB's 'Berlin-Trend,' the race for first place in Berlin is currently very close," it says. Wegner had won the 2023 election with the slogan "Berlin, you finally have to work" — it was the CDU's first victory in the German capital in 24 years.

Wegner justified his withdrawal on Friday with the sustained criticism of his communication. "I have realized in recent days that I am no longer getting through on the important issues — on the issues that matter to the people of Berlin (...) I am no longer getting through," he said. "I can no longer manage to send messages because another debate is overshadowing everything." He had lost trust, "the decisive currency in politics."

Wegner remains in office until the election

Until election day on September 20, however, Wegner intends to stay in office. "I was elected as Governing Mayor," he declared almost defiantly. As mayor, he would "of course" continue to carry out government business with full commitment. "It is now about strengthening the center in this city, so that it is not left-wing extremists who take over the leadership of this city," Wegner said. "I want this party to go into the election campaign to prevent a left-wing alliance under the leadership of the Left Party."

In his statement to journalists, Wegner looked back on seven years as CDU state chairman. "When I became CDU state chairman seven years ago, everyone said: 'He won't manage it, he won't pull it off, he won't become CDU state chairman.' That was in 2019 and I became CDU state chairman. But for 25 years before that, it had not been a matter of course; nobody had managed it. That counts for me."

Tensions between Wegner and Merz

Wegner belongs to the political circle of Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU). In the past, Wegner had publicly taken issue with Merz's policies — for example, with the fact that after his election as Chancellor in May 2025, Merz launched new debt on a large scale, including for the Bundeswehr. Also in the debate over the raising of the rainbow flag on the Reichstag building, which Bundestag President Julia Klöckner had prohibited, Merz had caused a stir with the sentence "The Bundestag is not a circus tent."

The Berlin CDU now faces the task of staging a credible restart in eleven weeks. "We are not writing against the Union — we are writing because we want to protect it," reads the draft letter. "The Berlin CDU has many bright minds," Wegner said. "But the decision on how things go from here — that decision now has to be made by others."

The power outage in early January had left 45,000 households without electricity for days. A mysterious group of left-wing extremists called the "Vulkangruppe" initially claimed responsibility for the attack, but later denied it. Wegner had acknowledged mistakes and apologized for his communication some time after the outage: "What is decisive for me is to learn from mistakes and do better in the future. In the end, Berlin overcame this power crisis significantly faster than initially expected."

With "Believe me, I am most annoyed about it," Wegner emphasized on Friday. "That was crap, I am most annoyed about it" — that is the conclusion of a politician who had taken office with great ambitions just under three years ago and now faces one of the most difficult elections in the history of the Berlin CDU.