Press
With Melis Sekmen, the Greens are losing a member of the Bundestag. She is moving to the CDU. A conversation with Friedrich Merz also played a role in this.
Berlin – The opposition in the Bundestag is gaining ground. Not just theoretically, in the form of the results of the regular Sunday questions. This time also concretely, because at the start of the second half of the year, a member of the Bundestag, Melis Sekmen, announced her switch from the Greens to the CDU.
In a three-minute video she on your website and her Instagram account, the 30-year-old revealed late Monday evening: “Today I have resigned from the Green Party and the Green parliamentary group.” It was a “very personal decision”.
Green MP switches to CDU: Melis Sekmen to join opposition politics
Sekmen, who has been a member of the Bundestag for the Mannheim constituency since 2021, spoke of a “long weighing-up process”. She joined the Green Party in 2011 and has served as chairwoman of the parliamentary group for start-ups and startups in parliament since 2022, as well as chairwoman and full member of the Economic Affairs Committee and as deputy member of the Finance Committee.
“I have noticed that my idea of how and in what style politics is done has evolved,” says Sekmen, giving reasons for her move to the opposition bench. For her, it is “a step forward.” A small slap in the face for Annalena Baerbock and Economics Minister Robert Habeck. After all, she comes from the Economic Affairs Committee. Also bitter for the Green Party leaders Ricarda Lang and Omid Nouripour.
Politics is also about “dealing with different realities of life,” Sekmen continues. It is important: “We have to judge people by their actions and not by their origins.” She cites Mannheim as a model, where people have not only found a home but have also been given opportunities.
She also sees her own family – her father once immigrated from Turkey – as “part of this wonderful story.” The Mannheim Way could work “everywhere in Germany.”
Sekmen goes from the Greens to the CDU: Praise for the basic program under Merz’s leadership
“I found exactly this spirit in the CDU’s new policy programme,” she says, praising the 82-page paper by the Christian Democrats, which was adopted just this year and entitled “Living in Freedom”.
Sekmen continues: “I met Friedrich Merz. We had a very good conversation and we quickly agreed that we wanted to bring the basic program to life together.”
The CDU chairman and opposition leader stressed to the German Press Agency (dpa) The parliamentary group is already looking forward to welcoming Sekmen as a new member. “With her family history and her issues, Ms Sekmen has many similarities with what the CDU stands for. We make politics for the hard-working people in our country,” Merz said, rolling out the red carpet for her.
CDU looks forward to ex-Green Sekmen: “Totally authentic and successful up-and-comer story”
Manuel Hagel describes Sekmen as an “absolute power woman” whose “totally authentic and successful upwardly mobile story” fits Germany. Her heart beats “for start-ups in Germany”. the state chairman of the CDU Baden-Württemberg about her new party colleague: “She works hard to create good conditions for innovation and creativity. Melis Sekmen is thus helping to breathe new life into the promise of prosperity in our country.”
Already this Tuesday she will be dpa-Information is expected for the first time at the meeting of the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag. Sekmen will therefore attend the routine consultations of the CDU/CSU MPs as a guest.
The now ex-Green Party member wants a “culture of debate that can also name uncomfortable realities and in which people are not pigeonholed for their opinions or concerns.” Sekmen’s concern is: “These voices must come from a strong center and not from the extreme fringes of politics. I want to continue to work towards this.”
Greens lose Bundestag members: Change reminiscent of Lengsfeld in 1996
Meanwhile, Irene Mihalic, parliamentary secretary of the Green Party parliamentary group, told the Editorial Network Germany (RND)Sekmen’s departure is regrettable, but also to be respected. “Within the parliamentary group, we will now discuss how we should deal with this organizationally,” she added.
The Green parliamentary group in the Bundestag last consisted of 118 members. The Union had 195 members after the departure of CSU politicians Andreas Scheuer and Stefan Müller in April and May.
Switching between two factions is rare. For the Union, it is the first time that someone has joined from another faction since 1996. At that time, former GDR civil rights activist Vera Lengsfeld also left the Greens for the CDU. The now 72-year-old sat in the Bundestag until 2005 and has been non-partisan since leaving the CDU in November 2023. (mg)
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