Germany: Openly Gay Stefan Evers Nominated as CDU Parliamentary Group Leader in Berlin

On September 22, 2026, the executive board of the Berlin branch of Germany’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) unanimously nominated Finance Senator Stefan Evers to head the party’s parliamentary group in the Berlin House of Representatives. As reported by the German outlet Queer.de citing the dpa news agency, the proposal by the party presidium was backed by the state executive committee. The decision currently represents a party nomination, with a formal vote by the parliamentary group scheduled for Thursday.

The nomination followed the Berlin state election held on Sunday, September 20. The CDU, which ran with Evers as its lead candidate, garnered 18.8% of the vote—down nearly 10 percentage points from the repeat election in 2023. The party lost its leading position to The Left (Die Linke), which finished first with 25.7%. The post of CDU parliamentary group leader has been held to date by Dirk Stettner. Additionally, party leadership recommended current parliamentary president Cornelia Seibeld for the post of vice president of the parliament.

Commenting on the election results and the outlook for forming a new city government in the German capital, Evers stated that the initiative to build a coalition belongs first to the victorious Left party. At the same time, he emphasized the CDU’s willingness to hold discussions with parties of the political center and did not rule out exploring a majority coalition alongside the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Greens.

The 46-year-old Stefan Evers joined the CDU in 1998 and is openly gay. A longtime member of Lesben und Schwule in der Union (LSU), he previously served as the group’s parliamentary manager and queer policy spokesperson before becoming Berlin’s senator for finance and mayor (deputy head of government) in 2023. In 2015, Evers entered into a registered civil partnership with his partner, which was later converted into a marriage. The politician has noted on multiple occasions that he never encountered resistance within the party over his sexual orientation, emphasizing that he entered politics to serve in a broad-based centrist people’s party rather than as an identity activist.

Previously, Uránia reported on other prominent openly gay figures within the German conservative bloc: in the summer of 2026, CDU/CSU Bundestag lawmakers Sepp Müller and Wolfgang Stefinger married , while former federal health minister Jens Spahn resigned as leader of the CDU parliamentary group in the Bundestag amid criticism after having a child through a surrogate mother in the United States.