Joe Chialo is resigning as Berlin’s cultural senator

Berlin’s cultural senator Joe Chialo (CDU) resigns. “Today I asked the governing mayor for dismissal from my office as a senator for culture and social cohesion,” he said. The background is therefore the discussions and the criticism of the far -reaching budget cuts for the cultural area of ​​the capital.

Chialo was most recently traded at the federal level as a possible successor to Claudia Roth (Greens) in the office of Minister of State for Culture and Media. But the CDU officially announced on Monday that media entrepreneur Wolfram Weimer should take over the position.

“Last year I supported the required cuts in the cultural budget with a heavy heart – in the awareness of the common responsibility for the city,” emphasized Chialo. “However, the other cuts that have now planned interfere with existing plans and objectives, change central technical prerequisites and thus lead to the impending closure of nationwide known cultural institutions.”

A constructive discussion about it has recently been made more difficult because public criticism has increasingly focused on one’s own person. “In this situation, I see it as my responsibility to create space for new perspectives.”

With the claim to actively contributing to the good development of the city. “If central political and professional goals can no longer be implemented permanently on the given framework, it is consistent in my view to take one step aside and put the office in new hands,” said Chialo.

Overall, the Berlin culture has to save around 130 million euros in the 2025 budget, almost twelve percent of its actually planned budget. Many theaters have to get from the country with less money. Numerous other areas in the city are also affected by savings of three billion euros.

Shortly before the Bundestag election last February, Chialo was in the headlines for a few days outside of Berlin, after Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is said to have mentioned “Hofnarr” and “Feigenblatt” of the CDU according to a report by FOCUS Online. Chialo found these words “degrading”. Scholz himself rejected the allegations as “absurd and artificially constructed”.

Last September, strangers committed a color attack on the Chialo house in Berlin. According to the police, the house facade was smeared with red color at the time, and the perpetrators also left lettering. The state security is determined for property damage.

Previously, Chialo had been harassed, attacked and insulted by a crowd at an event in Berlin, presumably by supporters from the propalestinian scene. The CDU politician remained unharmed.

Chialo had recently made headlines for repeated traffic violations. In April it became known that he had to give the driver’s license last September. “The reason was several speed overlaps that had accumulated over a period of five years and led to a corresponding number of points in Flensburg,” the CDU politician told the “Focus”.

Note: This article has been updated and further information was added.