Wegner’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) secured 28.2 percent of the votes in Berlin’s snap election in February 2023, following a Constitutional Court order to rerun the 2021 vote due to irregularities.
Since then, the party’s support in Berlin has fallen to 17 percent, reflecting a broader national trend. The CDU has lost standing to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in national polls, with Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s approval ratings dropping ahead of several important state elections.
While the CDU is on track to be surpassed by the AfD in this year’s state elections in Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, they are also losing ground to the opposite side of the political spectrum in Berlin.
Berlin’s conservatives face stiff competition from The Left, the Greens, and AfD, all polling between 18 percent and 20 percent.
Wegner stated to journalists on Friday that he aims for his party “to prevent a left-wing coalition led by The Left Party. The goal now is to strengthen the political center in this city so that left-wing extremists do not take over its leadership.”
The party’s decline in the German capital has also been affected by Wegner’s communication regarding the blackout crisis management and a week of chaos caused by black ice and the city’s inability to de-ice pavements.
In January, Wegner told journalists he had stayed home on the first day of the blackout to manage the city’s crisis response but later admitted to playing tennis that day in an interview with WELT TV, which, like POLITICO, is part of the Axel Springer Group.
The CDU stated that it could not yet determine who would replace Wegner as the top candidate.
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