False allegations against Stefan Gelbhaar: Green district leader resigns

In the case of possibly false allegations of harassment against Stefan Gelbhaar, there are the first consequences: Shirin Kreße, chairwoman of the Green parliamentary group in the Berlin-Mitte district council, has resigned from her mandate and resigned from the party.

she announced her resignation in an email, but without giving reasons for it. It is unclear whether Kreß is the person who made fabricated harassment allegations against Bundestag member Gelbhaar under a false name.

The Berliner Zeitung writes: “According to ‘Tagesspiegel’ research, Kreße is said to have submitted an affidavit under a false identity in which Gelbhaar was accused of sexual harassment. Kreße himself did not respond to calls and written inquiries from ‘Tagesspiegel’ on Saturday.”

The leadership of the federal Green Party had announced that it would carry out expulsion proceedings against the member “as soon as the person becomes known to us,” said the Green Party leaders Franziska Brantner and Felix Banaszak. “The suspicion that a false statement was made to the press against another party member containing serious allegations is serious.”

The allegations against Gelbhaar were made in December. According to the broadcaster, several women had told Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB), some anonymously and some under oath, that they had been harassed by Gelbhaar. Gelbhaar always denied all accusations. However, he decided not to run for the state list.

Last Friday, RBB withdrew parts of its reporting on the case. The public broadcaster ARD reported that doubts had arisen about the identity of the person “Anne K.” who had made such allegations. It is now clear that she was not who she claimed to be, according to the RBB. “It’s very likely that this woman doesn’t even exist.”

With the developments regarding the main witness, the allegations against Gelbhaar are not completely off the table. “But at least one significant allegation that we reported on did.” But there were “further descriptions” that the station reported on. “The identities cannot be called into doubt,” assured the editor. It remained unclear which accusations he was specifically referring to.

Gelbhaar sees himself as a victim of a defamation campaign. In an interview with “Business Insider” published on January 9th, the transport politician emphasized that he had never intentionally harassed anyone. There are no criminal charges against him either. “No, on the contrary. I filed a criminal complaint against unknown people for defamation,” said Gelbhaar.

The political damage to him is great. In mid-November, Gelbhaar was elected as the direct candidate for the federal election for Berlin-Pankow with 98.4 percent of the vote. In mid-December, he briefly withdrew his candidacy for a place on the Berlin Greens’ state list. On New Year’s Eve, he said in a lengthy statement on his website that the harassment allegations were lies.

The process must be “a partially planned action” with the aim of massively discrediting him. In another vote scheduled by the Pankow district association, state representative Julia Schneider was elected as the direct candidate. The association is sticking to Schneider as a direct candidate, it was said on Saturday.

A Green Party ombudsman has been dealing with the allegations against Gelbhaar for weeks. Results are not yet known. Gelbhaar himself said in an interview with “Business Insider” that he had been informed about “reports” about him by the ombudsman on December 13th. However, the descriptions remained “very vague”.

It is also unclear how credible the ombudsman’s office believes the reports against Gelbhaar are, whether they correspond to the allegations made to the RBB and whether the district politician named by the RBB also sought contact there. A request from the news agency to the ombudsman’s office remained unanswered as of Saturday afternoon.

Sources: “Tagesspiegel”, DPA, , RBB