Un tribunal de Berlín confirma las falsas afirmaciones del alcalde sobre llamadas telefónicas durante el apagón

En la inmediata aftermath, Wegner told Welt TV que había "locked himself away at home all day" coordinando la respuesta. He later added: "Ich habe in der Tat um 8 Uhr 8 begonnen, die Telefonate zu führen," claiming he had begun making phone calls at 8:08 that morning, including to crisis teams, grid operator Stromnetz Berlin, the Bundeskanzleramt and the Federal Interior Ministry. The Tagesspiegel subsequently reported that several of these claims were untrue.

Antecedentes: un apagón de cinco días en clima gélido

Wegner eventually conceded he had played tennis from 1pm to 2pm on the day of the blackout, a fact he had concealed for roughly five days. Asked to justify the missed hours, he told reporters: "Ich habe von 13 bis 14 Uhr Tennis gespielt, weil ich einfach den Kopf freikriegen wollte," while also acknowledging "suboptimale Kommunikation."

When the Tagesspiegel pressed the mayor's office for a full account, the Senatskanzlei initially insisted that the assumption Wegner had made no official phone calls that morning was "unzutreffend." The paper then sued for disclosure under freedom-of-information rules, and the Berliner Verwaltungsgericht ordered the mayor's office to release the truth.

Under court order, the Senatskanzlei admitted last week that no phone call had been made before 12:45 that day and that "der Austausch per Textnachrichten stattfand." The false statement was not corrected after Bild reported the discrepancy, the mayor's office only acknowledged the error once the court ruling was issued.

La orden judicial y la admisión

Wegner's conduct drew sharp rebukes from political opponents. SPD lead candidate Steffen Krach told Der Spiegel: "Seine Amtsführung ist ungenügend, sein Verhältnis zur Wahrheit beschämend." Left Party mayoral candidate Elif Eralp said: "Wer dreimal lügt, den wählt man nicht," accusing Wegner of having "bewusst verfälscht" his role in the crisis and squandered his credibility as governing mayor.

The affair has deepened public fatigue with Berlin politics, which Wegner himself has tried to channel. At a March press conference, asked repeatedly for clarification, he repeated six times: "Hierzu ist alles gesagt." Commentators warn that disinformation by officials, coupled with attacks on media scrutiny, erodes trust in institutions. One Tagesspiegel analysis put it bluntly: "Ein Staat, der 'Fake News' liefert, schafft sich ab."

Reacciones de los opositores y del público

The political damage is showing in the polls. In the current Berlin-Trend survey by Infratest dimap for RBB, the CDU has dropped to 17 percent and now sits in fourth place, behind the Linke at 20 percent, the Greens at 18 percent and the AfD at 17 percent. The SPD trails further back at 15 percent. In the 2023 Abgeordnetenhaus election, the CDU had scored 28.2 percent and returned to first place for the first time since 1999.

Consecuencias políticas antes de la elección de septiembre

During an RBB appearance on Tuesday evening, Wegner doubled down rather than clarify. "Das hatten wir ja schon im März bestätigt, dass ich zwei Telefonate am Vormittag geführt habe, den Rest über Textnachrichten gemacht habe," he said, even though the Senatskanzlei had just conceded that no morning phone calls had taken place.

With Berliners set to vote on 20 September, the court's confirmation lands at the worst possible moment for the CDU. Krach's diagnosis captures the wider stakes: when citizens believe "die da oben lügen ohnehin alle," they either disengage from politics altogether or drift toward the political extremes.

Wegner told the Tagesspiegel that "Die Interpretation des Tagesspiegels entbehrt jeder Grundlage," dismissing the paper's reporting. Whether he can recover trust ahead of the autumn election now depends less on further statements and more on whether voters believe he has told the truth this time.