For months, Berliners have been asking what their governing mayor did on the morning of January 3, when up to 100,000 people in the southwest of the city had to go without power and heating for hours or days. Now the Senate Chancellery has confirmed to the Tagesspiegel: Before 12:45 PM, Wegner did not make any phone calls to manage the crisis. Communication took place via text messages. It was only at 12:45 PM that he called Economics Senator Franziska Giffey (SPD).
In a TV interview on January 7, Wegner said: “I actually started making calls at 8:08 AM. I spoke with the crisis teams, with the power grid.” This statement turned out to be false. The governing mayor has since admitted to “communication errors” and apologized. The secretary general of the Berlin CDU, Ottilie Klein, described the “news value” of the current reporting as “very limited” – the facts have been known since March.
The political opposition is using the affair for attacks in the election campaign. SPD top candidate Steffen Krach told Spiegel: “It is now in black and white: Kai Wegner has severely damaged the office of governing mayor and disqualified himself. Common decency would now require him to step down.” Left Party mayoral candidate Elif Eralp told the Tagesspiegel: “Someone who lies three times does not get your vote.” Green Party top candidate Bettina Jarasch and AfD state chairwoman Kristin Brinker also voiced sharp criticism. Within the CDU itself, things have remained quiet so far – replacing the top candidate before the election in September is considered too late.
Source: www.faz.net
