Visit to the Olympic Games: Kai Wegner travels to Italy

Maybe he just wanted a little longer winter, now that the thaw has set in in Berlin. In any case, Prime Minister Kai Wegner (CDU) traveled to the Olympic Games on Tuesday. Although he may have made a mistake about the weather, if that was really the incentive: Wegner is not visiting the wintry, snowy Cortina d’Ampezzo, but rather the big city of Milan. And it was already 8 degrees plus on Tuesday morning.

The reason for the trip to the Lombard capital, which is around 820 kilometers away as the crow flies, is more likely Wegner’s attempt to promote Berlin as a future Olympic city for 2036, 2040 or 2044. It would certainly be appropriate to speak of a desperate attempt here. Because a two-thirds vote in the official Olympic referendum in Munich faces rejection in occasional, unofficial surveys in Berlin. And in the other application field, both competitors can gain momentum in further votes on April 19th (in the Rhine-Ruhr region) and May 31st (in Hamburg).

Cologne’s mayor, Torsten Burmester, recently went so far as to declare Berlin’s application hopeless. Now, as a participant in this question, he is anything but unbiased. But his assessment still has weight. Because the mayor of Cologne knows the people who select Germany’s candidate city better than anyone else because of their previous job: Burmester was head of the German Olympic Sports Confederation for almost three years until the end of 2024. And this DOSB wouldn’t take the risk of nominating a city next September, in which a year later a referendum initiated by the NOlympia movement could stop an application.

In this situation, Wegner can lobby for Berlin on two levels: firstly with the German sports officials who, like him, are guests in Italy, even if the winter sports associations dominate there and Berlin is applying for the summer games. But he could also meet international association representatives who, if Berlin prevails at the German level despite Burmester’s forecast, will ultimately have the final say. Officially, Wegner says this: “This trip is about sending a clear signal to the Olympic family: Berlin is ready.”

Wegner also wants to cheer

Of course, it would be ideal for Wegner if, as Berlin’s head of government, he could celebrate a Berlin medal on site – according to the Senate’s count, 19 athletes on the German team come from Berlin. But in the sports affected – ice hockey, figure skating or speed skating – the decisions will not be made until later days. Wegner still wanted to watch: on Tuesday afternoon at the German women’s ice hockey game against Italy.

Maybe that was the last thing he hoped for – to put it nicely – during the blackout and in the road salt debate The head of government, who is not exactly performing in the best possible way, simply has a motivational program on his own behalf: at the Olympic Games, he sees people who act successfully – and who, unlike him, are applauded at the moment.