Berlin's deputy FDP state leader, Sebastian Czaja, is leaving his party and intends to support a bourgeois alliance backing Governing Mayor Kai Wegner of the CDU in the upcoming election campaign. He cites concerns over a potential Left Party victory. The Berlin House of Representatives election is scheduled for September 20.
Sebastian Czaja, Berlin's deputy FDP state leader, has announced his departure from the party. In an interview with the "Bild" newspaper, he stated: "There is a danger that a radicalized Left Party will take on leadership responsibility." He added: "And so one has to ask: Isn't it better to form, support, and contribute to a bourgeois camp as an engaged citizen? And that's what I want to do."
Czaja intends to back a bourgeois alliance supporting Kai Wegner (CDU) in the Berlin House of Representatives election on September 20. Although he disagrees with some of Wegner's decisions, he emphasized that the vote concerns "directional decisions for Berlin." "And I believe that Kai Wegner is the right choice for our city. And now it's important to make that clear in the various policy concepts," he said. Czaja does not plan to join the CDU, even though his brother Mario Czaja was the party's former general secretary.
Czaja led the FDP as top candidate in three Berlin House elections and served as parliamentary group leader from 2016 until the 2023 repeat election, when the Liberals failed to clear the five-percent hurdle.
A February 25 poll by the Insa institute for "Bild" shows the CDU at 22 percent, down six points from 2023. The current black-red coalition would lack a majority. Possible triple alliances include SPD (16 percent), Left Party, and Greens (15 percent each) or CDU, SPD, and Greens. The AfD polls at 17 percent, the FDP at four percent. Polls carry uncertainties and reflect only the current opinion landscape.
