HE IS silver-haired, handsome and hugely popular. And Klaus Wowereit may well be on his way to becoming the world's first gay leader.
Wowi, as his supporters know him, has been voted in for a second term as the left-wing Mayor of Berlin. He is also being groomed by his Social Democratic Party as its nomination for the chancellorship at the next general election in less than four years.
Mr Wowereit, who caused a storm among more traditional voters last year by endorsing a sex-fetish fair in the capital featuring sado-masochism, bondage and other deviant pursuits, is now being talked up as the man to topple Angela Merkel when Germany next goes to the polls.
The SPD is yet to recover from the identity crisis it plunged into after the departure of its former leader, Gerhard Schroeder, last year. But with his reputation as a successful consensus builder, Mr Wowereit could prove to be the charismatic leader the party could now do with. Despite Berlin's high unemployment and declining property prices, Mr Wowereit, 52, is a popular figure in the city. In a recent poll, almost 60 per cent of Berliners supported him; just more than 20 per cent backed his CDU challenger Friedbert Pfluger.
Mr Wowereit is doing nothing to dispel the rumours that he would like to go further. "I would like to have more say than I have had in the last five years," he said after Sunday's victory, translated by the German media as meaning: "I want to be chancellor."
But critics say his flamboyant, party-going habits, and tendency to push Berlin's cultural strengths rather than deal with its depressed economy, make him a lightweight politician.
"Wowereit cares more about the Love Parade than creating jobs," Mr Pfluger said recently, referring to the city's annual street rave.
If Mr Wowereit were to become chancellor, he would be the first openly gay head of state in the world. The former lawyer came out in 2001, famously saying: "I am gay, and that's OK."
In 1984, at the age of 30, he was Berlin's youngest city councillor. In December 1999, he became chairman of the SPD parliamentary club in the Berlin city parliament and went on to join forces with the PDS, the successor party to the East German Communist Party.
"There is a new political constellation in Berlin," he said then. "Many hopes are pinned on it, as well as many fears. It is fiercely rejected by many, with many Berliners forced to remember their recent history."
But Berlin adjusted to its ruling political constellation, and grew increasingly fond of its optimistic, impeccably dressed Mayor.
He lives on the fashionable Kurfuerstendamm shopping street in the heart of west Berlin with his partner Jorn Kubicki. No one batted an eyelid when the two embraced before the cameras after Sunday night's election win.
Mr Wowereit opposes the Iraq war — like 85 per cent of Germans — and supports unions and a strong welfare state.
Before his coming out, Mr Wowereit had few claims to fame inside or outside his left-wing SPD.
He was thrust into the job of acting mayor in June 2001, when the city's ruling coalition collapsed in a bank scandal over bad loans.
After his gay admission, Mr Wowereit tried to prevent his homosexuality dominating the campaign.
His partner was kept out of the spotlight and for important occasions, such as a reception for Russian President Vladimir Putin, he borrowed someone else's wife for the evening, to avoid creating a stir.
Some politicians could not resist making an issue of his sexual orientation, not surprising in such a conservative country.
Mr Wowereit had a "deformed character", said Frank Steffel, a former rival with the conservative CDU party.
But for now, he is the wunderkind of the German left — and may hoist the rainbow flag of the gay movement alongside the German tricolour should he go on to defeat the increasingly unpopular Dr Merkel.
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