(In the third paragraph, last sentence, it must correctly say: “And yes, then I played tennis from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. because I just wanted to clear my head.”)
BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – The discussion about his behavior during the day-long power outage in Berlin had recently died down, but now the topic is catching up with Berlin’s governing mayor Kai Wegner again. A good six months before the election to the House of Representatives, the CDU politician is coming under pressure again. Again it’s about his information on January 3rd, the first day of the day-long blackout in the southwest of Berlin, in which 100,000 people were left without electricity or heating in the middle of winter.
Did Wegner accurately describe his efforts as a crisis manager or create a false impression? As the “Tagesspiegel” reports, information from the Senate Chancellery suggests that there were at least no phone calls from Wegner to the Chancellery or the Chancellery in the morning Federal Ministry of the Interior has given. According to the “Tagesspiegel”, the Senate Chancellery released the information about the phone calls after an urgent application from the newspaper to the Berlin Administrative Court.
In an interview with Welt TV on January 7th, the CDU politician said: “I actually started making the phone calls at 8:08 a.m.” Among other things, he called various crisis teams. “Above all, I spoke to the federal government, to the Federal Chancellery, to the Federal Minister of the Interior,” said Wegner. “And yes, then I played tennis from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. because I just wanted to clear my head.”
Did he want to suggest that he had already called the Chancellery before the tennis match? Regarding the reporting in the “Tagesspiegel,” he said that the newspaper’s interpretation had no basis. “I’m considering legal action.”
Wegner only comments briefly
Senate spokeswoman Christine Richter had previously announced that Wegner had not commented on the question of when he had spoken to the above-mentioned authorities on the phone to Welt TV. “His statement there about the tennis game between 1 and 2 p.m. was only to be understood as a supplement.”
Even after the most recent Senate meeting, the CDU politician did not provide any specific information about when he had spoken to whom on the phone and for how long. When asked several times, he explained at a press conference: “Everything has been said about that. I was in contact with various places. And I played tennis for an hour.”
According to the federal government, several telephone calls were made to the Chancellery
In response to a dpa inquiry, a spokesman for the federal government said that it was true that Wegner had several conversations with Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Chancellery Minister Thorsten Frei (both CDU) on January 3rd. It was about possible support for the state of Berlin from federal authorities to deal with the consequences of the power outage in southwest Berlin. The spokesman did not provide any information about the exact time of the phone calls.
Wegner was already heavily criticized at the beginning of January, initially because he did not show up on site in the Steglitz-Zehlendorf district on the first day. When the RBB made it public that Wegner had gone to play tennis on the first day of the power outage, but had initially kept it quiet, there was a storm of indignation.
At the beginning of January, a suspected left-wing extremist arson attack resulted in a widespread power outage in southwest Berlin, which temporarily affected around 100,000 people. On the fifth day, the network operator Stromnetz Berlin finally managed to supply all those affected with electricity again./ah/DP/stw
