Overview
- A suspected arson attack on a cable bridge on 3 January triggered a multi-day power outage that left about 45,000 households and more than 2,000 businesses in southwest Berlin without power or heating.
- The Tagesspiegel sued the Berlin Senatskanzlei for press access to the mayor’s phone records and the Verwaltungsgericht Berlin ordered disclosure of how often and how long Kai Wegner telephoned responsible authorities up to midday on 3 January.
- The court specifically barred naming Wegner’s interlocutors to avoid revealing alarm or alerting procedures, creating a compromise between press rights and operational secrecy.
- The decision is not final and either side can appeal to the Oberverwaltungsgericht Berlin-Brandenburg, leaving legal and factual questions about Wegner’s movements and contacts on that day unresolved.
- The ruling may heighten political pressure on Wegner because of earlier controversy over an undeclared one-hour tennis match and contradictory accounts of his actions during the outage, with possible effects for his standing ahead of the September vote.