Germany's reformed communist party could soon be back in power in Berlin after the former party leader announced his intention to run for mayor.
Mr Gregor Gysi's announcement came a day after city politicians ousted the city's Christian Democrat mayor, Mr Eberhard Diepgen, after 16 years and replaced him with an interim Social Democrat (SPD) mayor ahead of autumn elections.
Last week the SPD pulled out of their decade-old coalition with the Christian Democrats in the city, blaming CDU cronyism for years of financial mismanagement that has left Berlin on the verge of bankruptcy with debts of £28 billion.
This summer's election campaign will serve as a preview of next year's federal elections and looks set to be dominated by SPD plans to form a coalition government with the Green Party and the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), heirs to East Germany's Communist Party.
"If we don't want to return to the CDU, then we have to say we are willing to overcome our fear of contact with the PDS," said Mr Klaus Wowereit, who accepted the SPD party nomination last week with the surprise announcement that he is gay.
As caretaker mayor, Mr Wowereit will lead a minority SPD-Green coalition in the city with PDS support until elections in September.
The PDS captured an average 17 per cent of the vote at the last elections in Berlin, but in the eastern half of the city the party took 40 per cent of the vote and could be coalition king-makers this time around.
The SPD and PDS are already in coalition in the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, but an alliance in the capital would be highly symbolic.
The German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, said the upcoming election opened "new prospects" for the capital and has given the Berlin SPD a free hand in choosing their coalition partners.
Former PDS leader Mr Gysi plans to campaign for a change to the Berlin city constitution to allow direct election of the mayor.
He would benefit from such a change as he is the clear favourite of 60 per cent of Berliners, according to a survey last week.
"It's going to be a tight for the SPD with Mr Gysi in the race, because he attracts a large number of SPD voters," said one political commentator.
Mr Gysi and the PDS are hoping their chances at the polls will improve after they make a formal apology to all those killed while trying to escape East Germany.
The apology planned for the 40th anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall next August.
"It's a bad day for the capital and sends a wrong signal for Germany's political culture," said CDU general secretary Mr Laurenz Meyer of a possible alliance with the PDS.
"For power, the Social Democratic Party is today selling its ideals and roots."
The CDU have the most to lose from any Red-Red-Green alliance in the city. They hoped to run former CDU leader and Kohl-ally Mr Wolfgang Schauble as their candidate for mayor, but opted instead for the local CDU leader, Mr Frank Steffel.
Mr Diepgen and his CDU allies, all old-guard West Berlin politicians, had come under increasing criticism for continuing to rule the city as if it were still West Berlin, being kept alive by West German subsidies.
A decade after reunification, and five years after the federal government stopped its subsidies, the city has debts of £28 billion - £8,400 per head of Berlin's 3.3 million population.
"In the past, if Berlin wanted money, it just went to Bonn and asked, and it got it," says Prof Ralf Rytlewski, a professor of political science at Berlin's Free University.