“Package of measures for the follow-up to the major damage situation” was the title of the already prepared message that was displayed in the press room of the Red Town Hall on Tuesday afternoon. But what sounded like a comprehensive, quick reaction to the arson attack and the subsequent power outage at the beginning of January was already cleared up by Prime Minister Kai Wegner (CDU) in his first sentence. The Senate meeting in the morning was not about a package, but about “proposals that we will discuss in a first meeting”.
That not only sounded like backpedaling, but also unfortunate in the choice of words. Wegner continues to be criticized for playing tennis during the blackout. Using tennis vocabulary in this situation and talking about “first serve” when he means a draft or a collection of suggestions would be better avoided.
What the head of government presented could already be heard to a large extent in his government statement almost two weeks ago: five areas of action that range from the protection of the infrastructure to increased disaster protection and more powers for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution to the financing of the whole thing.
What is really new are the names of the four members of an advisory group that is intended to bring in “external expertise”, i.e. expertise from outside the administration. It will include former Bundeswehr general Uwe Nerger, ex-BVG boss Sigrid Nikutta, who left Deutsche Bahn at the end of 2025, Charité boss Heyo Kroemer – and Albrecht Broemme, who has already been appointed by several senates to deal with crises. The former Berlin fire chief and ex-president of the Federal Agency for Technical Relief has already helped set up a corona hospital, managed vaccination centers and was refugee coordinator until the end of 2025.
Prime Minister Wegner expects a report from this group by the end of May that analyzes the critical infrastructure including the transport network and health care. This should make it possible to initiate measures before the House of Representatives election on September 20th. Despite all the processing, it was already clear to Wegner on Tuesday what had already been heard several times from the Senate: “The crisis management worked.”
For him, the work of Broemme’s group is not in competition with a “resilience” working group of the coalition factions of the CDU and SPD in parliament. Wegner sees this as a supplement, especially when it comes to legal adjustments or budgetary issues. According to her own information, Interior Senator Iris Spranger (SPD) also takes part in the meetings of this working group.
Spranger spoke out in favor of demanding more money from the Bundestag and the federal government for the tasks that the state of Berlin takes on as the federal capital. The present agreement needs to be revised as quickly as possible. According to her, Berlin is also underequipped in terms of disaster protection and only receives half of the special vehicles that the state is actually entitled to from the federal level. “Berlin has been disadvantaged for years,” said Spranger, “we will no longer tolerate that.”
The Green parliamentary group in the House of Representatives had already accused the black-red Senate in the morning of reacting too late. They pointed out that they had been working on a “strategy for a crisis-proof capital” since the attack on the power grid in Köpenick in September at the latest. However, the Greens agree with Wegner that Berlin, especially as the federal capital, is still at risk. “We have to assume that attacks can come,” said co-parliamentary group leader Werner Graf and urged speed up. Because: “Berlin is not prepared for an emergency.”