The campaign for the election of the Berlin House of Representatives on September 18 is about to start and the race for the mayor's office is set to be between present mayor Klaus Wowereit (social democratic party, SPD) and Renate Künast (Green Party, "Grüne"). The Greens are trailing the SPD by only 4 - 5% in recent polls and have set up a campaign budget of 1.1 million Euro, which means a doubling of 2006's budget, and will concentrate on the issues of education, employment and climate politics.

Poll results: http://www.wahlrecht.de/umfragen/landtage/berlin.htm (german headers, but easy to read: quelle = source; befragte = people asked ...)

"To judge by the headlines in the international press, you’d think Berliners spent most of their time debating Greek ­sovereign-debt levels and protesting Germany’s secret sale of 200 tanks to Saudi Arabia. But in ­Berlin, too, all politics is local. Topics currently dominating inevitably beer-fueled debate include whether the ambitious Media­ Spree development project—which has already added a glittering sports-and-concert arena, offices for MTV and Universal Music, and high-rise hotels to the banks of the River Spree in Friedrichshain—will displace the club life that has long represented the beating heart of the city; which Western neighborhood, Wedding or Moabit, will follow Neukölln as the next hot spot for artists; and whether the Green Party can leverage its recent success in pushing conservative chancellor Angela Merkel to ban nuclear power into a victory in September’s mayoral election. Locals still warm to current mayor Klaus Wowereit’s famous description of their home as “poor but sexy,” which is why the city’s latest accolade has sent chills through some quarters: Berlin recently overtook Rome as Europe’s third-most-visited city, behind only London and Paris." http://nymag.com/travel/features/berlin-2011-7/