By Hildburg Bruns and Carl-Victor Wachs
Wobbly election in Berlin! The CDU politician Kai Wegner failed in the election for the new Governing Mayor of Berlin in the first ballot.
The 50-year-old missed the required absolute majority in the vote in the House of Representatives on Thursday.
Wegner: Not a good start for a coalition
In the first ballot, Wegner received 71 yes votes (out of 159). But he needs 80 to be elected. The new coalition of CDU and SPD has 86 seats in the state parliament.
Horrified faces at Franziska Giffey and Kai Wegner. After the defeat in the first ballot, Wegner said yes. BZ: “This is not a good start for a coalition.” The CDU parliamentary group discusses the defeat in the ballroom.
The CDU has 52 seats, the SPD 34. Mathematically, Black and Red has a majority of six votes.
The ballot must now be repeated in its entirety. If Wegner also misses the absolute majority in the second ballot, further ballots are possible. A majority of the votes cast would then be sufficient for an election.
The Berlin FDP man Tobias Bauschke (36) smiles to BZ: “What a start for Wegner. It was clear that not everyone would agree, but that’s almost 50 percent of the SPD.”
Many reservations in the SPD against GroKo
One thing is clear: there are many reservations in the SPD against a black-red alliance. Several district associations and not least the Berlin Jusos have clearly spoken out against it. The Berlin member of the Bundestag Kevin Kühnert (33, SPD) put it on record that Wegner’s personnel hurt him.
Wegner wants to use the black-red alliance to replace the three-party alliance of SPD, Greens and Left that has been in power since 2016. The previous governing mayor, Franziska Giffey, is to receive the post of economics senator.
Kai Wegner and Franziska Giffey before the vote in the Berlin House of Representatives Photo: dpa picture radio
The election of the new head of government is the first item on the agenda of the session of the House of Representatives.
The CDU and SPD signed the coalition agreement on Wednesday. Wegner wants to officially take over Giffey’s duties in the Red Town Hall and appoints the ten senators.
In the repeat election on February 12, the CDU was the strongest party with 28.2 percent. The SPD came in second, just ahead of the Greens, with both parties getting 18.4 percent.