S Even Armin Laschet makes fun of him. “It’s not a surprising weather crisis: it’s called winter,” posted the CDU Bundestag member and former candidate for chancellor on X. The addressee: Laschet’s party friend, Berlin’s governing mayor Kai Wegner.
Wegner, who was still reeling from the tennis affair during the power outage, slipped up again. “We are experiencing extreme weather conditions in Berlin – with freezing rain and persistent frost,” the Berlin head of government posted on X on Thursday. “I appeal to the House of Representatives to make the use of de-icing salt in Berlin possible in exceptional cases.”
Wegner’s pious wish: “We have to defuse the dangerous situation on sidewalks, stairs and streets. It is our duty to ensure that people can get through the city safely and safely, even in winter.”
Our patience is limited
Raed Saleh, SPD
What Wegner overlooks is that it is not the House of Representatives that is responsible for ensuring that people can cross Berlin’s sidewalks “safely and safely.” It’s the homeowners whose damn duty it is to shovel snow or clear ice. So why does Wegner appeal to parliament instead of setting off with a shovel or a pick?
Not only party friend Laschet reminded of the current legal situation, but also SPD parliamentary group leader Raed Saleh, whose party has governed with Wegner’s CDU since 2023. “Of course, for us, the protection of life and limb has priority over other considerations, which we will take into account in the legislative process,” Saleh said on Thursday evening in somewhat complicated terms. “However, we expect immediate action from the administration. This includes, in particular, enforcing clearance obligations, for example through controls, and ensuring replacement measures are technically and materially secured.”
On Friday the roll backwards
Immediate action is the key word for the SPD. “Waiting for a complete legislative process lasting several weeks is neither necessary nor reasonable.” Saleh’s note goes to the responsible CDU transport senator: “Senator Bonde should also know that our patience is limited and that the calendar winter began on December 1st, 2025.”
In the meantime, the transport senator has looked at her calendar and perhaps also out her office window. In any case, on Friday afternoon Ute Bonde decided to use road salt on the sidewalks. The legal basis is a general decree issued by it.
A short time later, a press release from the Red City Hall followed: “The safety and health of Berliners are my top priority,” said Kai Wegner. “That’s why I instructed the Senator for Transport today to immediately issue a general decree that allows private individuals and the BSR to use de-icing salt on sidewalks to remove the ice cover.”
According to Wegner, he is aware “that this path is associated with legal uncertainties”. Nevertheless, he considers it “to be necessary in this special situation”.
Once again a special situation in which Kai Wegner doesn’t cut a particularly good figure. Even if he wants to demonstrate at least a bit of leadership by referring to an “instruction”.
Wegner suddenly without instinct
It wasn’t just the governing mayor who slipped. The CEO of the German Hospital Association, Gerald Gaß, reports that clinics in the regions affected by black ice are extremely busy. “Hospitals are reporting increased stress on emergency rooms and inpatient areas due to ice accidents.”
Berlin in particular is affected by this, says Gaß. “Unfortunately, as a pedestrian in Berlin you also have to have the impression that the city and private property owners are unable to fulfill their traffic safety obligations.”
Now one might ask: What’s so wrong with applying road salt to sidewalks in emergency situations? The answer comes from environmental associations and the Greens: Anyone who calls for road salt now should not complain about the massive death of street trees in spring and summer. Then enriched salt can remove water from the roots of the trees. Everyone can imagine how they will react to the stress in addition to the heat and dryness.
So instead of putting road salt on the sidewalks by general decree, one could ask the other way round: Why not let those who are on icy sidewalks onto the streets? Why not mark pop-up sidewalks on the roadways?
Of course, the imagination of Kai Wegner and Ute Bonde doesn’t go that far. That could possibly take revenge. According to some forecasts, the permanent frost in Berlin could last until March or return again and again. The rent and mobility election campaign that is impending in Berlin could also raise the question of whether Kai Wegner is still the right person.
The SPD is now noticeably distancing itself as a coalition partner. And the opposition senses their chance: “Instead of appealing to their own coalition via Instagram, the government should immediately invite the THW, civil protection, the BSR and the fire department to a crisis summit,” demands Tobias Schulze, parliamentary group leader of the Left Party.
Instinct has already failed the CDU top candidate twice. Is Berlin currently experiencing a Wegner twilight?
Someone who believes in his own political instincts commented this way: “A head of government who begs for majorities for things that are self-evident is politically finished,” wrote former FDP member of the Bundestag Wolfgang Kubicki on X.