By Elias Sedlmayr
What the Greens are upset about. Berlin’s new governing mayor, Kai Wegner (50, CDU), wants to improve Berlin’s bad image as a dirty city.
Wegner said in an interview with BILD am SONNTAG: “Only a clean city is also a safe city worth living in. We will install more rubbish bins and provide more cleaning staff.”
It is unacceptable for people to be afraid of stepping on syringes in the park or being hit on by dealers, the Governing Mayor continued.
So far, so banal. Who has anything against drug-free parks and a well-kept cityscape?
Some Berlin parks resemble a rubbish dump in summer. Here the James-Simon-Park in Mitte Photo: Spreepicture
Berliner Grüner accuses Wegner of inhumanity
But among Berlin’s Greens, the political platitude causes downright horror: “Governing Mayor Wegner is backing a culture war, criminalization and dehumanizing language. People are not rubbish – whether they are dealers or not!” Berlin Greens MP Ario Mirzaie raged on Twitter in response to Wegner’s statement.
And then added: “Is that the new sound of the black and red Senate? Then rather overflowing rubbish bins (sic.) and dog shit on the shoe,” says Mirzaie.
Ario Mirzaie Photo: picture alliance/dpa
Where exactly Wegner had described drug dealers as garbage, Mirzaie left open.
RBB agrees with Wegner’s demand for a blanket ban on gender in administrations
Another incident related to statements by the new head of town hall led to outrage among the Greens. After the Rundfunk-Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) published an article with the headline “According to Wegner, the Berlin administration will in future dispense with gender language”, the Berlin Greens accused the mayor of right-wing politics.
Sebastian Walter (44), parliamentary director of the Greens in the Berlin House of Representatives, tweeted: “The culture war begins from the right” and went on to explain that gender-free administrative language can only be achieved by changing the “Joint Rules of Procedure of the Berlin Administration”.
Greens: Wegner plays off social groups
Wegner further remarked: “We also expect people who come to Germany to learn German, and the authorities in particular should not make it unnecessarily difficult for them.”
That was also enough to accuse the CDU politician of playing social groups off against each other, according to Sven Lehmann (43, Greens), who is even a member of the federal government as a queer officer.
He tweeted: “How perfidious can you be and use a group you campaigned against to make another group invisible?”
► What does Lehmann mean? Probably the demand of the CDU-Berlin after the Berlin New Year’s Eve riots in January to give the first names of the suspects, who were given by the police as German citizens.
In the meantime, the RBB has adapted the article. Specifically, Wegner replied to the interview question as to whether the Berlin administration should continue to change gender: “I have not yet signed a letter in gender language.” It is important to him that the language of the administration is understandable. However, Wegner did not advocate a general gender ban in the administration.
RBB deleted his tweet again on Monday morning: