Premiere for Berlin’s new mayor Wegner and his cabinet

From Hildburg Bruns

Again and again on Tuesdays these women and men have a date – at 10 a.m. in the Red Town Hall. They are THE decision-makers in Berlin – the new black and red Senate plus appendix.

First regular meeting on the first floor. The newly governing Kai Wegner (50, CDU) later revels in the no-riot luck in the Senate press conference: “An excellent May 1st, the preparations were highly professional, a tactical masterpiece.” More praise is not possible.

The sober balance sheet:

► 7100 deployed police officers at the top

► 80 provisional arrests Walpurgis Night/1. May

► 99 preliminary investigations initiated

► 6 prosecutors and two judges on duty

► 20 injured police officers (blast trauma, bruises, pain).

Wegner spent the entire May holiday with the SPD interior senator Iris Spranger (61), testing the catering in the operations center Kruppstrasse (Moabit) with her – including chicken with rice, Thai vegetable curry, sauerbraten. “Much better than before,” says Wegner.

Many of the 2,500 foreign police officers from Schleswig-Holstein to Bavaria stayed at the Hotel Estrel and were really looking forward to their deployment in the capital. “Of course Berlin is always worth a trip,” Wegner mothballed an old advertising slogan.

It took the governor one and a half hours to get to work from his home in Kladow in Mitte on Tuesday morning. The driver of the armored service Audi (A8) is not allowed to put blue lights on the roof in order to get through faster with Lalülala. A construction site on Kaiserdamm and climate adhesive slowed Wegner’s zest for action somewhat.

At 8.30 a.m., before the start of the weekly Senate session, the preliminary meeting usually takes place – the agenda is worked through separately by party and current problems are discussed. The Sozis get half a roll from the town hall canteen, everyone pays privately.

Unlike her predecessor Franziska Giffey (44, SPD), Wegner does not always want to appear in front of the press on Tuesdays after the meeting. “It is important to also give the specialist senators a podium,” he said.

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