Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner announced Friday that he will not seek reelection in the city's September 20 vote, bowing to mounting pressure from within his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party.
The decision follows a political firestorm over his management of a week-long power outage in January that left 45,000 households and 2,000 businesses without electricity during freezing temperatures.
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Party Pressure and Polling Decline
CDU members escalated calls for Wegner's withdrawal this week via an open letter, as recent polls showed the party slipping to fourth place with 17 percent support, behind Die Linke at 20 percent.
Wegner acknowledged that the controversy had overshadowed his policy message. "I can no longer get my message out because another debate is overshadowing everything else," he said.
He expressed regret over the communication during the crisis.
"The communication was rubbish … and believe me, I am more annoyed about this than anyone else," Wegner stated.
While defending his operational response, Wegner said he hoped the CDU would not be "further weakened over the coming days and weeks through debates about its personnel."
During the blackout, Wegner said he was "neither bored nor putting my feet up, but was on the phone all day trying to coordinate."
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He added that he "literally locked myself in my office at home."
Public scrutiny intensified after broadcaster RBB revealed that Wegner had played tennis for an hour with Berlin Education Minister Katharina Günther-Wünsch shortly after the power grid failed.
The incident, dubbed "tennis-gate," led Wegner to defend the break.
"Yes, at some point I said: 'I need a short break, I need to clear my head' and the best way for me to do that is with sport," he said.
Reflecting on his response, Wegner noted: "Looking back, I should have said on Sunday what I did on Saturday."
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Berlin Finance Senator Stefan Evers, who also took over the culture portfolio in April, is widely expected to replace Wegner as the CDU's lead candidate.
