http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/germany-ready-for-a-gay-leader-many-say-yes/2006/09/22/1158431902404.html?from=rssHE 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.
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