Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner has withdrawn his candidacy as the Christian Democratic Union's top candidate for the September 20 state election, though he plans to remain in office until then. The announcement on Thursday follows intensifying pressure over his handling of a multi-day power blackout that struck the capital in early January.
Scrutiny mounted after Tagesspiegel reported that official phone records showed Wegner made no work-related calls on the morning the outage began, communicating only by text messages. Wegner acknowledged communication errors in March but later claimed he had made morning calls; a Senate spokesman clarified the first call was not until 12:45 p.m. The Senate chancellery was compelled by a court order to disclose the records.
Harald Burkart, head of the CDU's youth wing, had publicly demanded Wegner step aside as lead candidate. Recent polls show the CDU trailing at 17 percent, behind the Left, Greens, and AfD, while SPD candidate Steffen Krach ruled out any future coalition role for Wegner.