As one of Germany’s 16 federal states, Berlin is a city-state represented in the Bundesrat. The city government is known as the Senat, which is usually a coalition cobbled together by the dominant parties in the local parliament. The Senat is led by the mayor (der Regierende Bürgermeister), who also has national standing as a state premier. The current mayor, Social Democrat Klaus Wowereit, has held office since June 2001 and his SPD has governed the city with junior coalition partner the leftist PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism), which is still strong in Berlin’s eastern districts. The PDS recently changed its name to The Left Party (Die Linke) in an attempt to broaden its national appeal from traditional strongholds in eastern Germany. With many younger voters living in the city, the Greens also do better in Berlin than in national polls. Wowereit has presided over a period of extended austerity, as the city tries to tackle its €60 billion mountain of debt. Berlin is likely to remain one of the biggest recipients of the so-called Länderausgleich, which regulates financial transfers from Germany’s more prosperous states to the poorer ones out of federal solidarity. The mayor’s office is located in the Red Town Hall (Rotes Rathaus) near Alexanderplatz, and Berlin’s legislature sits not far from Potsdamer Platz in the former Prussian parliament building.