Kai Wegner has withdrawn from Berlin’s mayoral race ahead of the September election, conceding that a controversy over playing tennis during a major power blackout has made it impossible for him to communicate his political agenda to voters, despite defending his actual handling of the crisis.
Berlin’s mayor Kai Wegner has abandoned his campaign for reelection after months of mounting pressure over what German media dubbed “tennis-gate,” a scandal stemming from his decision to play tennis while large parts of the capital endured a major power blackout in January. Wegner announced on Friday that he would not stand in Berlin’s 20 September election, following an open letter from members of his own Christian Democrats (CDU) party this week urging him to withdraw his candidacy.
A Crisis Mishandled in Communication, Not Management
The blackout that triggered the controversy was caused by an alleged arson attack that damaged critical electricity infrastructure, plunging around 45,000 households and more than 2,000 businesses into darkness for nearly a week during a period of freezing winter weather. Wegner maintained throughout that his actual response to the emergency had been effective, insisting the real failure lay in how he communicated his actions to the public. “The communication was rubbish … and believe me, I am more annoyed about this than anyone else,” he said.
At the time of the blackout, Wegner told reporters he had been working around the clock to manage the crisis, describing how he had “literally locked myself in my office at home” and insisting: “I was neither bored nor putting my feet up, but was on the phone all day trying to coordinate and get as much information as possible.” That account was complicated when public broadcaster RBB reported that Wegner had in fact gone to play tennis for an hour with his partner, Berlin’s education minister Katharina Günther-Wünsch, just hours after the blackout began. He later acknowledged his initial framing of events had been misleading. “Looking back, I should have said on Sunday what I did on Saturday,” he said. “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.”
Why He Chose to Step Aside
Wegner said the resulting loss of public trust had made it impossible for him to get his broader political message across. “I can no longer get my message out because another debate is overshadowing everything else,” he said. He acknowledged the episode had damaged the CDU’s standing more broadly, and framed his withdrawal as an act of protection for the party rather than simply a personal concession, saying it would ensure “that the CDU is not further weakened over the coming days and weeks through debates about its personnel.”
A Party Slipping in the Polls
The controversy has coincided with a sharp decline in the CDU’s electoral prospects in Berlin. A poll released on 1 July placed the party in fourth position, behind the far-left Die Linke, the Greens and the far-right populist AfD, with Die Linke leading on 20%, the CDU on 17%, and the Social Democrats (SPD) trailing further behind on just 13%. Current polling suggests the existing CDU-SPD coalition is unlikely to secure anything close to the majority it would need to remain in power after September’s vote.
Who Comes Next
Wegner is expected to be replaced as the CDU’s mayoral candidate by Stefan Evers, Berlin’s finance senator, who has also held the role of culture senator since April. His selection would mark the party’s attempt to reset its campaign ahead of an election in which its standing has been significantly weakened by months of sustained controversy surrounding Wegner’s leadership.
