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Mayor of ‘poor but sexy’ Berlin announces early exit amid airport construction fiasco
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/26/mayor-of-poor-but-sexy-berlin-announces-early-exit-amid-airport-construction-fiasco/
Mayor of ‘poor but sexy’ Berlin announces early exit amid airport construction fiasco
By Agence France-Presse
Tuesday, August 26, 2014 20:14 EDT
Berlin’s embattled mayor Klaus Wowereit, who famously dubbed his city “poor but sexy” and presided over its rise as an arts and party capital, said Tuesday he would step down in December.
Wowereit, who has led Berlin since 2001, had once been seen as a potential Social Democratic challenger to Chancellor Angela Merkel.
But his star rapidly tarnished over a fiasco surrounding a planned international airport, the biggest project of his 13 years in office.
“There was a lot of speculation recently about how long the mayor would stay in office. Two years before the term is up, this was not helpful and did a lot of damage,” Wowereit told reporters.