Unusual candidate

The three men vying to succeed Klaus Wowereit as Berlin's mayor have much in common. All hold positions of responsibility within the local chapter of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) despite being relatively young. All make a well-turned out, professional impression. And all have similar plans for the city, including solving the conundrum of the years-behind-schedule and billions-over-budget Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport, one of the main reasons Wowereit is stepping down this December.

But Berlin SPD parliamentary leader Raed Saleh only needs to open his mouth to stand out from the crowd. Saleh came to Berlin at the age of five with his Palestinian parents, and although his German is beyond reproach, he speaks the language with a distinct Arabic twang.

"Berlin is a city of diversity, a city of 100 different accents," Saleh told DW. "People will just have to get used to mine."

With that, Saleh has a slogan with the forthright charm to rival Wowereit's "I'm gay, and that's okay" from 2001. Saleh admits that he initially had to overcome some resistance within his own party when he began his political career, but says he learned to take comments about his accent with a sense of humor. Initially a surprise candidate for the mayor's office, the 37-year-old has emerged as something of a dark horse. He projects confidence in any case.

"Berlin is the place where being different has become normal," Saleh says. "In Berlin, sexual orientation, ethnic background or a physical handicap plays no role whatsoever. My Berlin is vibrant and tolerant."

Is Berlin ready to be led by a politician from an Arab background? It's the SPD that will decide.

A coup or a respectable second?

Wowereit's successor will be elected not by the city-state's parliament, not by a general popular election. The 17,200 members of the SPD are currently stating their preference by mail-in ballot. With the SPD's grand-coalition partners, the Christian Democrats, saying they will support the SPD candidate, the next mayor of Berlin will effectively be determined this Saturday when the mail-in votes are tallied.

Berlin state party chairman Jan Stöss and Berlin buildings commissioner and Wowereit intimate Michael Müller are Saleh's competitors for the office. Müller is considered the favorite, although Saleh has been making up ground.

"It would be a great surprise, indeed a coup, if Saleh won the vote among SPD members," Jan Thomsen - chief Berlin political editor for the Berliner Zeitung newspaper - told DW. "I don't think he'll make it, but I do think he'll come in a respectable second. He's been unexpectedly good in his public appearances, and he's genuine and offers Berlin a new narrative - as a place of upward social mobility."

Thomsen says that Saleh's party is tolerant enough for someone of his background, although the city as a whole might not be.

"Is the Berlin SPD ready to accept a young German Muslim with an accent? Yes, but I still think the members will go for a safer, more conventional choice," Thomsen said. "In any case, Saleh's chances are better among SPD members than among residents of Berlin as a whole. That's why he's trying to use them now."

Saleh is banking on a long tradition of Social Democratic progressivism.

"I'm convinced that my party, which has stood for solidarity and freedom for 150 years, won't disappoint me now either," Saleh says. "My party is very open."

The view from the street

Because there is no direct popular election, there are no polls to suggest which candidate Berlin's 3.4 million inhabitants - 15 percent of whom hail from foreign countries - would prefer to see in the mayor's office.

Indeed, at the bi-weekly food and fabric market on the Landwehrkanal in the Neukölln district, a well-known epicenter of multicultural Berlin, no one seemed to have heard of Saleh or realized that the members of the SPD were picking the city's next mayor.

"I have no idea who this man is," said one woman at a fruit-and-vegetable stand when asked what she thought of Saleh's candidacy.

None of the vendors at what has been promoted in the past few years as the "BiOriental Weekly Market" but has been known for decades colloquially as the "Turks Market" were bothered by the idea of a man with an Arabic accent serving out Wowereit's term, which runs until 2016. Nonetheless, the general sentiment was that competence was more important than background.

"I don't mind who becomes mayor," said one man selling fabric. "The main thing is that the airport gets finished some day."