Berlin Mayor withdraws election candidacy amid 'tennis affair' controversy

Berlin's Governing Mayor, Kai Wegner, is stepping down as the Christian Democratic Union's (CDU) lead candidate for the upcoming September election to the House of Representatives. This decision comes after a prolonged period of criticism regarding his crisis management following a significant power outage in January.

The controversy centers on Wegner's timeline and communication surrounding the January 3rd blackout, which left 100,000 people without electricity for days. Initially, Wegner omitted that he played tennis for an hour during the crisis. Subsequent revelations and inconsistencies in his account of his activities on that day fueled further debate, particularly after the "Tagesspiegel" reported the Senate Chancellery stating he did not make official calls about the blackout before 12:45 p.m., contradicting his earlier interview where he claimed to have started calls at 8:08 a.m.

Wegner had previously admitted to communication errors and apologized for his handling of the situation. However, he had rejected calls for his resignation, securing nearly 93% of the vote to become his party's top candidate in June. Despite this, the opposition has consistently accused him of lying, and even his coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), has distanced itself from him.

The ongoing discussion about Wegner's actions appears to have impacted the CDU's standing in the polls. The party has seen a significant drop in voter support, falling to fourth place with only 17% in a recent Infratest dimap survey, a stark contrast to the 28.2% achieved in the 2023 election. Wegner was eventually elected Governing Mayor in April 2023 after the 2023 election, succeeding Franziska Giffey of the SPD.