Press
The Union and the Greens are engaged in tough political disputes. A young Green MP has now decided to work with the CDU. That hasn’t happened for a long time.
Berlin – In the midst of the political disputes between the Union and the Greens, the Green Bundestag member Melis Sekmen is moving to the Union parliamentary group. “My decision is the result of a long process,” Sekmen confirmed to the German Press Agency a corresponding report by the news portal “Table Media”. The 30-year-old spoke of a “step forward” and added: “My idea of how and in what style politics is done has evolved.” Sekmen has Turkish roots – her father came to Germany as a teenager. She was born in Mannheim and has been a member of the Bundestag since 2021.
CDU parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz (CDU) told the dpa that the group was pleased to soon be able to welcome Sekmen as a new member. The MP will be seeking membership in the CDU district association in Mannheim in the next few days. “With her family history and her issues, Ms Sekmen has many of the same ties that the CDU stands for. We make politics for the hard-working people in our country.” Sekmen said she had announced her resignation from the Greens and the Green parliamentary group on Monday.
Sekmen: For a culture of debate without pigeonholes
Sekmen explained: “We need a culture of debate in which people can express their opinions and concerns without being pigeonholed.” She added: “These voices must come from a strong center and not from the extreme fringes of politics.” For her, the CDU’s new policy program stands for defining people by their actions and work and not by their origins.
“Table Media” had written, citing party circles, that Sekmen had contacted the CDU weeks ago out of disappointment with the Greens’ economic policy and had spoken to Merz as well as the chairman of the Baden-Württemberg regional group in the Bundestag, Andreas Jung, and the head of the Southwest CDU, Manuel Hagel, about her move to the CDU.
The last time a Green MP switched to the Union was in 1996
It is rare for MPs to switch factions. The last time the Union faction had a new member from another faction was at the end of 1996. At that time, the former GDR civil rights activist Vera Lengsfeld also switched from the Greens to the Union. At the end of last year, Lengsfeld, who sat in the Bundestag from 1990 to 2005, left the CDU. After the departure of CSU MPs Andreas Scheuer and Stefan Müller in April and May, the CDU/CSU faction last had 195 MPs.
Sekmen sits on the Economic Committee for the Greens
In the Bundestag, Sekmen is the Green Party’s chairwoman in the Economic Affairs Committee and has been chairwoman of the parliamentary group “Start-ups & Startups” since 2022. The MP has been a member of the Green Party since 2011, and from 2011 to 2014 Sekmen was spokesperson for the Green Youth in her hometown. In 2014, she was elected to the Mannheim City Council, where she was parliamentary group leader from 2019 to 2022. dpa
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