Berlin's new conservative mayor Kai Wegner has appealed to his coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD) to pull together and get to work, after a difficult election process.
"Berliners now expect a government that works together - not against each other - and tackles the problems," the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) politician told the rbb broadcaster on Saturday evening.
You have to convince the people in the city, "also one or two others in your own ranks, both in the CDU and in the SPD," he said.
Wegner only reached the city's top post after a third round of voting in Berlin's House of Representatives. Although the coalition partners CDU and SPD have 86 votes there, he received only 71 votes in the first ballot and 79 in the second.
In his third try, he got 86. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) said they had voted for him. It is seen as taboo by all other mainstream parties in Germany to gain power or pass legislation with the support of the AfD.
"I think the AfD is lying," said Wegner on rbb, maintaining that his 86 votes came from the CDU-SPD coalition politicians.
"The coalition majority was in the third ballot."
The ballot is secret so it is not possible to know if the AfD actually backed the new mayor.
Wegner's Senate team is now highly motivated, he said. In Berlin the town council is known as the Senate.
