With her move to the CDU, Mannheim Green Party member Melis Sekmen suddenly gained notoriety and raised concerns with her party over the rental legislation.
So far discreet: Melis Sekmen in the Bundestag Photo by: dts/imago
It's a small blow for the Greens, where good news is rare at the moment. In a cheerful Instagram post, Green Party MP Melis Sekmen explains her conversion to the CDU in front of the water tower in her Mannheim constituency: She spoke to party leader Friedrich Merz, she says visibly proudly.
For her, changing parties means a new step forward, but in some ways it is not: “I am still Melis, you know, accessible and accessible to everyone.” Mannheim would have been well known to those who knew the Bundestag until now. But a change of party during the current term of office is rather rare.
The 30-year-old Sekmen, a business school dropout and the son of Turkish parents, has had a whirlwind career in the party. She joined the Greens in 2011 and became a spokeswoman for the Mannheim Green Youth the same year. In 2014 she was elected to the Mannheim municipal council and, when she was re-elected, was even elected queen among all the city's candidates. In the 2021 federal election she stood in Mannheim, the constituency of the CDU's direct candidate Nikolas Löbel, who was forced to resign due to the mask scandal. A first disappointment. The Mannheim Greens had hoped that she would win constituency 275, but Isabel Cademartori from the SPD succeeded. Sekmen only made it into the Bundestag via the list. After her defection, the CDU hopes to regain the electorate.
There is a great deal of anger in Mannheim about Sekmen's change of party. Former Green Party councillor Gerhard Fontagnier said he thought it was predictable. “Here in the district association we made bets on whether and when she would join the CDU. The city council claims to have brought Melis Sekmen over to the Greens.”
rapid increase
But she also paints the picture of a social climber who was more interested in her career than in political content and who wanted to ensure her permanence in parliament by changing positions. Sekmen rose very quickly thanks to the networks, her migrant background, but also thanks to the status of women. “But if you listened to her, it was always the same old stuff.”
There is also nothing positive to be heard from the Bundestag faction. Under Sekmen, a replacement player is more likely to leave the team, says a player on the left wing. In the parliamentary group, she was often noted for her inaction and there were many changes and discontent among her employees. There were some signs that she was overwhelmed by the mandate, says a member of the group.
In her statement to her former party friends, there is, of course, no sign of being overwhelmed. It seems that the Greens' corridors of opinion seemed too narrow for her. With reference to migration policy, she writes that what is needed is “a culture of debate that can also identify uncomfortable realities and in which people are not boxed in by their opinions or concerns.”
The Mannheim Greens have now asked Sekmen to return the mandate she acquired through the party list. Probably without success. So they now have a very practical problem. Sekmen, who will soon be a CDU MP, will continue to have her electoral office in an office shared with the Green district association. “We now have to look at the rental contract,” says Fontagnier.