Berlin Mayor Wowereit To Resign This Year

Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit has announced that he plans to step down before the end of the year. The center-left Social Democrat has led Germany's capital for more than a decade.



Wowereit told a news conference on Tuesday that he plans to resign as Berlin's mayor on December 11, after having held the post for nearly 14 years, making him Germany's current longest-serving head of a state government.



First elected mayor in 2001, Wowereit has governed Berlin with various coalition partners that ranged from the socialist Left party to the center-right Christian Democrats most recently.



The 60-year-old Social Democrat has come under fire as of late for repeated delays in the construction of Berlin's new international airport. The Berlin-Brandenburg Airport (BER) was originally scheduled to open in 2012, but estimates for the finish date now range from 2016 to as late as 2019. The project could cost more than 5 billion euros ($6.5 billion) by the end of construction.



According to the daily tabloid Bild, the chairman of the Berlin Social Democrats, Jan Stöss, will likely be tapped as Wowereit's successor.



slk/sb (AFP, dpa, Reuters)