Berlin mayor Kai Wegner withdraws from September election over tennis match during major blackout
Kai Wegner blamed communication failures that overshadowed his political work after a power outage left 45,000 households without electricity in January.
The withdrawal
Kai Wegner, the mayor of Berlin, announced on Friday afternoon (10 July) that he will not seek reelection in the city’s 20 September election. The Christian Democrat (CDU) politician said the fallout from his handling of a major power outage in January had made it impossible to communicate his political message. He told journalists,
Although he acknowledged mistakes, Wegner insisted his emergency management had been sound and that he intended to remain in office until the vote. His candidacy had been formally endorsed by the CDU only the previous month.The communication was rubbish... and believe me, I am more annoyed about this than anyone else.
The January blackout
On 3 January 2026, an arson attack on high-voltage cables plunged southwestern Berlin into darkness. Around 45,000 households and more than 2,000 businesses (one Spanish report cites 22,000) lost power, affecting an estimated 100,000 people. The outage lasted nearly a week, the longest in the city since the Second World War, with sub-zero temperatures hitting hospitals, schools, and nursing homes particularly hard. Elderly residents had to be evacuated to heated shelters, and at least one elderly person died from the cold and lack of heating, according to La Razón. The far-left "Vulkangruppe" initially claimed responsibility, then retracted the claim, fueling debate about the security of critical urban infrastructure.
The tennis match
On the day of the blackout, Wegner spent an hour playing tennis with his partner, Berlin education minister Katharina Günther-Wünsch. He initially told reporters he had been coordinating the emergency response from home all day. A subsequent investigation by public broadcaster RBB revealed the tennis session, and Wegner later admitted he had not started making calls until 12:30 p.m., not at 8 a.m. as he had first claimed. At a press conference he said,
Days later he conceded his choice of words had been poor: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.
Looking back, I should have said on Sunday what I did on Saturday.
- Arson attack on high-voltage cables causes power outage in southwestern Berlin.
- Mayor Kai Wegner plays tennis with education minister Katharina Günther-Wünsch.
- Power fully restored to all 45,000 households.
- CDU formally selects Wegner as its candidate for the September election.
- Wegner announces he is withdrawing his reelection bid.
Party pressure and polls
The reputational damage prompted CDU members to write an open letter this week urging Wegner to drop his bid. Polls now suggest the current CDU-SPD coalition is unlikely to retain a majority in September. Wegner acknowledged that the controversy had hurt his party’s standing, saying his withdrawal was meant to prevent the CDU from being weakened further by debates about personnel. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s office stayed silent for months about the discrepancies in Wegner’s account, deepening the criticism.
What happens next
Although he has abandoned his reelection campaign, Wegner will stay on as mayor until the 20 September election. The CDU must now find a candidate capable of overcoming the public trust deficit left by the scandal. No successor has been named.
