Kai Wegner (50, m) received a standing ovation after his hour-long party conference speech. First and foremost also from his new Secretary General Ottilie Klein (39, r) Photo: Sebastian Christoph Gollnow/dpa
From Hildburg Bruns
For HIM, the party conference in the Estrel was a breakthrough: The ruling Kai Wegner (50) was gloriously confirmed in office as Berlin CDU leader – with 96.1 percent (without abstentions)!
After all, Wegner brought the Capital Union back to power in the repeat election, and even his internally controversial new General Secretary Ottilie Klein (39) got 76.2 percent.
After his dream result, Wegner celebrated: “Incredible! This is exactly the signal that the CDU is closed!”
Also in the farewell to former party sizes. Because three Berlin national giants fared less well. The party conference delegates probably sensed that they were no longer part of the Wegner team and hardly gave them any votes in the election of the 32 delegates to the upcoming federal party conferences. Not just a question of image – these meetings are also about participation in important internal party elections, for example.
► Mario Czaja (47) only ended up in 35th place – third place. He is said to have worked as Friedrich Merz’s general secretary in October against a top candidate from Wegner, who was not expected to win the election in Berlin at the federal level. Out of decency for an ex-secretary general, there was no support – because Czaja has not had this position since July.
► Monika Grütters (61), who surprisingly replaced Wegner as Berlin CDU leader in 2019, even ended up in 40th place – the eighth replacement place. An insider about the former Secretary of State for Culture: “The party looks forward rather than backwards.”
And ex-Justice Senator Thomas Heilmann (59) did not end up as a delegate in one of the rare places for the party’s federal committee – the small federal party conference.