Green MP Sekmen applies to join the CDU

Bundestag - Green MP Sekmen applies to join the CDU

The previously Green Bundestag member Melis Sekmen from Mannheim intends to join the CDU. A corresponding application for admission has already been submitted, confirmed the responsible CDU district association chairman Christian Hötting. This will be decided at the coming Tuesday evening meeting of the executive board, Hötting added, but this is just a formal matter. "Of course, we are happy that as CDU Mannheim, we now have a federal political representation again."

Sekmen is expected to attend the Union faction meeting in the Bundestag in the afternoon. The 30-year-old will participate as a guest in the regular consultations of the CDU/CSU parliamentarians, learned the German Press Agency from faction circles in Berlin.

Green Party calls for resignation from Bundestag mandate

The Green district association Mannheim called on the former parliamentarian to resign from her mandate. Sekmen announced her departure from the party and the Green Bundestag faction on Monday - in the middle of the political disputes between the Union and the Greens before the important state elections in the fall. The district association expressed its disappointment with this decision. "Melis Sekmen was elected to the Bundestag via the Green state list," it said in a statement. "We therefore demand that Melis Sekmen relinquishes her Bundestag mandate, so that another person from the elected Green list can represent us in the Bundestag instead."

Co-Landeschef of the Baden-Württemberg Greens, Pascal Haggenmüller, regretted Sekken's departure and also demanded her resignation. "We demand that she returns the mandate that she received via the state list," Haggenmüller said.

Sekmen: "Decision is the result of a long process"

"My decision is the result of a long process," Sekmen told the dpa on Monday evening and thus confirmed a corresponding report by the news portal "Table Media". She spoke of a "step forward" and added: "My perception of how and in what style politics is made has further developed."

The politician has Turkish roots - her father came to Germany as a youth. She was born in Mannheim and has been a member of the Bundestag since 2021.

1. Melis Sekmen, previously a Green Bundestag member from Mannheim, plans to join the CDU, with an application for admission already submitted to the CDU district association in Mannheim.
2. The CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag is expected to welcome Sekmen at their faction meeting, where she will attend as a guest and participate in their regular consultations.
3. The Green Party in Mannheim and the co-leader of the Baden-Württemberg Greens, Pascal Haggenmüller, have both called for Sekmen to resign from her Bundestag mandate, citing her decision to leave the Green faction as a disappointment.
4. In response to the criticism, Sekmen explained that her decision to join the CDU was the result of a long process of self-reflection and a shift in her perception of politics.
5. Born and raised in Mannheim, Sekmen has roots in Turkey and has been a member of the Bundestag since 2021, representing Germany in the Union parliamentary group.

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