Stefan Gelbhaar and the harassment allegations: Intrigue among the Greens?

The Berlin Greens are currently being rocked by an intrigue. The trigger is allegations of harassment against the Berlin Bundestag member Stefan Gelbhaar, which are apparently at least partly fictitious. suggest that the allegations were made by a Green district politician using a false identity. On Saturday, Green district politician Shirin Kreße left the party. Here are the answers to the most important questions.

The Berlin Green Party politician Gelbhaar has been a member of the Bundestag since 2017. In the 2021 election, he won the direct mandate in the Pankow constituency in the capital.

The harassment allegations against Gelbhaar emerged in December. Media reported. In its reporting, the RBB referred to allegations from women, some of whom are said to have sworn to the station.

It is not known in detail whether the ARD broadcaster met all of the people himself and how he checked their statements. However, when asked by the DPA news agency, RBB editor-in-chief David Biesinger said: “As RBB, we made a mistake in our research. Journalistic standards were not fully adhered to.”

Gelbhaar always denied all accusations. After the allegations became known, he decided not to run for the Bundestag via the state list. On New Year’s Eve he declared on his website: “The allegations are lies.” The process must be “a partially planned action” with the aim of massively discrediting him.

on January 9th, Gelbhaar emphasized that he had never intentionally harassed anyone. There are no criminal charges against him either. “No, on the contrary. I have filed a criminal complaint against unknown persons for defamation,” said Gelbhaar to the online medium. The public prosecutor’s office confirmed again on Sunday that there had been no complaints against Gelbhaar so far.

The exact timing is unclear. What is known is that on Friday evening the RBB announced that it was deleting part of the reporting. There are doubts about the identity of a woman who submitted an affidavit, it said. 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.” Research led to a Green district politician who the RBB did not name.

Days earlier, the “Tagesspiegel” had reported that there were doubts about the identity of the alleged witness who made the most serious allegations. The newspaper wrote at the weekend that the editorial team had already sent a request to the RBB on Monday, but had received no response. On Friday evening, the RBB itself reported, citing its own research.

The “Tagesspiegel” reported days ago, citing its own research, that her name could not be found on a doorbell or a mailbox at the address noted in a woman’s affidavit. A query in the population register also showed that the author of an affidavit was apparently not registered at the specified address, the newspaper continued.

The RBB editor-in-chief said that the identity behind the affidavit had not been sufficiently checked by the editorial team. No details were given. According to RBB, criminal charges have been filed against the person who is said to have made the false statements.

On Saturday it was announced that Berlin district politician Shirin Kreße had resigned from the party. On Sunday she confirmed to the DPA news agency that she had also resigned her mandate in the Berlin-Mitte district council assembly (BVV) and quit her job in a Green MP’s office. “The reason for this is that while I deal with the allegations that have been made against me, I want to avert possible damage to the party, but also to those affected by sexual violence,” she explained.

The Green Party leaders Franziska Brantner and Felix Banaszak had previously threatened to be kicked out of the party if the person responsible was a party member.

The Greens want to file a criminal complaint because of an alleged false statement against Gelbhaar. Party leader Felix Banaszak announced this after a meeting of the Federal Executive Board in Berlin. The criminal complaint is directed both “against the named person and against unknown persons,” said co-party leader Franziska Brantner when asked. Banaszak was “shocked and shocked” by the incident and emphasized: “Such behavior, which is characterized by criminal energy and villainy, has no place in our party.” A party exclusion procedure was therefore planned. But that was then resolved when the person in question left.

According to Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, the campaign manager of Green Chancellor candidate Robert Habeck, Andreas Audretsch, has nothing to do with the possible intrigue against Gelbhaar. As Foreign Minister, she couldn’t say anything about the case; the party headquarters and the party’s ombudsman office took care of that, the Green politician emphasized in the ZDF program “Berlin Direkt”.

When asked whether Gelbhaar could still get a place on the list for the federal election if the allegations finally turned out to be untrue, Baerbock replied that this was a matter for the committees.

Habeck is demanding clarification in the case of the possible intrigue against Gelbhaar. “The events in the Berlin regional association are serious and shocking,” said the Economics Minister in Berlin. “It is essential that we clarify quickly and ruthlessly what actually happened and that the consequences are drawn.”

Habeck emphasized: “This is exactly what the federal association has set out to do with high priority.” The party executive is “completely on board” with this. Habeck did not answer further questions on the topic and referred to a press conference by the party executive committee in the afternoon.

According to the RBB, not all allegations against Gelbhaar have yet been resolved. “But there was at least one major allegation that we reported on,” explained RBB editor Thorsten Gabriel on Friday evening. There were “further descriptions”. However, the allegations are significantly lower. What exactly this was about initially remained unclear.

The Green Party’s ombudsman has also been examining the allegations for several weeks. Results are not yet known. Whether the current developments will have an impact on the investigation in the ombudsman’s office and whether the false witness had also reported there remained unclear, even after several DPA inquiries. The Greens press office did not initially respond to inquiries.

The case is causing unrest – also because it has not yet been fully clarified what the other allegations against Gelbhaar are and whether there may be other people involved. The Union already took up the issue during the election campaign and spoke of a “brutal punching and stabbing” in the immediate vicinity of Chancellor candidate Robert Habeck.

Habeck’s campaign manager Andreas Audretsch said at the weekend that he had “nothing to do with the entire process.” Audretsch and Gelbhaar both originally wanted to run for second place on the state list. After Gelbhaar withdrew his candidacy shortly before the state party conference in light of the allegations, Audretsch was elected. Second place on the list is considered almost certain in order to be able to enter the Bundestag.

Yellowhair is presumed innocent. The political damage to him is already great. His career as a member of the Bundestag is probably over for the time being. In the vote on his direct candidacy for the Bundestag, which was repeated due to the allegations, on January 8th he was defeated by state representative Julia Schneider by a significant margin. At the first election meeting in mid-November, Gelbhaar was elected as the direct candidate with 98.4 percent of the vote. At the weekend, the district association announced that it wanted to stick with Schneider as a direct candidate.

Note: This article has been supplemented with the reactions of Robert Habeck and the Green Party leadership.