Berlin’s state finance senator Stefan Evers is poised to become the CDU’s top candidate for the Berlin Abgeordnetenhaus election in September. This was agreed by the CDU district chairpersons on Friday evening, according to CDU parliamentary faction leader Dirk Stettner speaking on the sidelines of the meeting. They backed Evers as the successor to Kai Wegner, who had stepped down from the candidacy amid growing criticism of his crisis handling during the January power outage (TheColu.mn reported). The final decision on the top candidacy is expected to be made by the CDU state executive board on Monday.
With the nomination of Evers, the chances that Berlin could again be governed by a gay-friendly alliance are doubled. The Greens had already last November nominated their openly gay parliamentary leader Werner Graf as a candidate for the office of Governing Mayor (TheColu.mn reported). With SPD politician Klaus Wowereit, an openly gay politician led the Berlin Senate from 2001 to 2014 for the first time.
Evers and LSU thank Kai Wegner
Stefan Evers aims to push his party back to the forefront of the campaign. The CDU would be able to accomplish a great deal before the election on September 20 if it presented itself united, motivated, and focused on the essential issues, he said in the evening after the meeting of the CDU district chairmen. “I am ready to take on this responsibility.”
He expressed his appreciation that the district chairmen stood behind him in unison, Evers noted. He will take on the top candidacy and, provisionally, also the CDU state leadership in a particularly challenging situation.
“We work, we make mistakes,” said Evers, who thanked Wegner for his “successful work.” “When we reach a point where the discussion about mistakes obscures the focus on what matters, we must collectively decide how we will ensure that we can again talk in this city about what matters.” For the CDU, the task now is to look forward.
In a press release, the state association of the Lesbian and Gay Community in the CDU (LSU) also expressed thanks to Kai Wegner for his departure “with great respect.” “We, but also I personally, thank Kai Wegner for the trusting cooperation of the past years,” said René Powilleit, the state chairman. “He has always interacted openly, fairly, and constructively with LSU and its concerns. Together we could move a lot and set important impulses for Berlin.”
In der CDU blickt Evers auf eine lange Parteikarriere zurück
When it comes to who in the Berlin CDU would be suitable for even higher offices, Stefan Evers’ name has often come up in the past. Yet the 46-year-old will have to mount a recovery over the next three months, as the finance minister has not yet been among the most prominent state politicians. On the other hand, many in the CDU had not trusted Wegner to pull the party out of its polling slump, and are now placing high hopes in the new top candidate. Evers has the advantage of not being associated with any of Wegner’s accusations.
Stefan Evers was born in Herdecke, North Rhine-Westphalia, but has lived in Berlin since 1999. He studied law at the University of Potsdam and then worked as a staffer in the German Bundestag. In the CDU, he has built a long party career: since 2011 he has been a member of the Berlin state parliament and began there as deputy parliamentary group chairman. From 2018 to 2023 he served as the parliamentary managing director of the CDU parliamentary group, and from December 2016 until autumn 2023 he was the CDU state party secretary. In the February 2023 repeat election, he won the direct mandate in the Treptow-Köpenick 3 district with 32.7 percent, after which Wegner brought him into his government team. Within the CDU state leadership, Evers has so far been one of the deputy chairs.
He has made his mark especially in election campaigns, often through sharp attacks on political opponents. He is regarded as someone who points out the wound, even if it hurts others. His reputation is that of a technically competent, quick-thinking, and quick-talking figure. Wegner has known him for a long time and could rely on his loyalty. In terms of policy substance, the two generally aligned, so one should not expect a major shift in political goals from Evers—even though, as finance minister, he frequently stressed that money does not grow on trees.
A CDU Queer-Policy Politician with No Fear of Boundaries
In recent years Stefan Evers has also shaped the Berliner CDU’s queer policy. During the era of the previous grand coalition, in 2015 he, together with his SPD colleague Tom Schreiber, laid the political groundwork for the later Elberskirchen-Hirschfeld-Haus project (TheColu.mn reported). During the Berlin CDU membership vote on marriage equality, he argued within the party in 2015 for legal equality for lesbians and gays (TheColu.mn reported).
In a guest column for TheColu.mn in 2017 he called for more video surveillance as a measure against queer-phobic violence. He described the fight against hate crime as a key priority for the Union even before the most recent election. Additionally, he wanted to bring attention to topics that are often overlooked, such as queer life in old age.
To Berlin’s comparatively left-leaning LGBTI community, the CDU politician maintains a very relaxed relationship. He appeared last year on the queer talk show “Margot Schlönzkes Schattenkabinett.” He has repeatedly had Pride flags raised in front of his Senate department for CSD or IDAHOBIT celebrations.
Direct link | Stefan Evers on “Margot Schlönzkes Schattenkabinett”
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The Senator Is a Fan of Ades Zabel
Because of his height, the finance minister is always hard to miss. In the Berlin Senate he is not only responsible for finances but, since May, also for culture—after the resignation of Culture Secretary Sarah Wedl-Wilson (independent) over a funding scandal—which is an unusual combination. The penny-pincher now also oversees budget cuts at theaters and museums. So far, the operation has mostly been quiet.
Evers is married and not only professionally but also personally interested in culture. He named the queer play “Wenn Ediths Glocken läuten” by and with Ades Zabel at the BKA Theater as one of his recent theater visits—which the Berlin press viewed as a positive sign of his ties to Berlin’s independent cultural scene.
Evers is also described as a film enthusiast and animal lover: the Berliner Morgenpost revealed that the Friedrichsfelde Zoo is a magical place he has known for a long time. His favorites live in the Himalaya enclosure: “I always love coming here for the red pandas.” (mize)
