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Berlin Elects Its First-Ever Openly Gay Mayor
City lawmakers elected Berlin's first openly gay mayor Saturday, bolstering the city's credentials as one of the world's gay capitals, in a political shift.
Klaus Wowereit, a Social Democrat, takes over on an interim basis after the coalition that ruled the city for a decade collapsed amid a bank scandal and mounting debts.
The shift removed the conservative Christian Democrats, led by outgoing Mayor Eberhard Diepgen, who had been the senior partners with the center-left Social Democrats in the coalition formed soon after reunification.
At least until new elections this fall, Berlin will be run by a coalition of the Social Democrats and the Greens party ¡ª mirroring the government on the national level, led by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Schroeder welcomed Wowereit's win Saturday, saying it opened "new prospects" for the capital.
But until the new elections, the city's coalition will lack a majority and need backing from the Party of Democratic Socialism ¡ª the successors to the communists in former East Germany.
Wowereit, 47, was a little-known political figure before grabbing nationwide attention last weekend when he came out as gay at a party convention before his nomination.
Since then, he has emphasized in interviews that he's a "politician who's gay, but not a gay politician" ¡ª and that he hasn't focused on gay issues.
Nevertheless, Wowereit's election was greeted with applause and some cheers when it was announced Saturday at a street festival in Berlin's Schoeneberg district, the heart of the city's thriving gay and lesbian scene.
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