VBKI President Markus Voigtdid not turn his heart into a murder pit. In his welcoming address at the start of the top-level discussion, he referred to the many political construction sites in Berlin where no substantial progress has been made: housing construction, education, mobility and internal security. In front of more than 300 spectators in the hall and hundreds more who followed the evening via livestream, he called on politicians to prevent further division in the city and to finally start implementing the major issues - namely administrative reform. He called for a fresh start "in which pragmatism, not ideology, sets the tone".

 

 

This was followed by a passionate debate - moderated by Tagesspiegel editor-in-chief Lorenz Maroldt - in which the candidates positioned themselves programmatically. The governing mayor and top candidate Franziska Giffey, for example, unequivocally opposed any form of expropriation - in contrast to what was called for in the referendum. Bettina Jarasch, top candidate for the Berlin Greens and Senator, announced her intention to invest two billion euros in the transformation of Berlin's energy supply. Dr. Klaus Lederer, top candidate for the Left Party, advocated a more prominent role for the state in Berlin's energy sector - for example through a majority stake in the district heating network and a takeover of Gasag. The two leaders of the FDP and CDU were different: Sebastian Czaja called for trust in the forces of the market and the innovative power of the economy in order to master the challenges of the future. "Politics is not the better entrepreneur," said CDU state and parliamentary group leader Kai Wegner. Dr. Kristin Brinker from the AfD pleaded for a revival of nuclear energy.