Yellow hair affair
Green MP leaves the party and settles accounts
Özcan Mutlu was a Green MP for years. Because of the yellow hair scandal, he resigned from the party and spoke harshly to the Berlin regional association.
The former Green Party member of the Bundestag Özcan Mutlu has left the party. The background is the discussions about an internal party intrigue and harassment allegations against the Berlin Bundestag member Stefan Gelbhaar. The party is no longer the political home for which he once fought, Mutlu explained in an open letter to the federal chairmen Felix Banaszak and Franziska Brantner as well as to the Berlin state executive. His criticism is expressly directed against the party’s Berlin regional association.
“Intrigues, power games and a blatant culture of error have made Alliance 90/The Greens an organization that no longer represents my beliefs and values,” wrote Mutlu, who was a Green MP in the Berlin state parliament for 14 years and in the Bundestag from 2013 to 2017. He is therefore resigning from the party with immediate effect.
Gelbhaar decided not to run for the Green Party
There have been allegations of harassment against Gelbhaar since mid-December. According to its own information, the RBB reported based on affidavits from women. The broadcaster also said it had access to anonymous reports to the Green Party’s ombudsman’s office.
On Friday, the broadcaster withdrew parts of its reporting on the matter and reported doubts about the identity of a person who had made such allegations. Gelbhaar had always denied the allegations.
For Mutlu, dealing with Stefan Gelbhaar is systematic
When the state list was drawn up in mid-December, he decided not to run for office due to the allegations. In another vote scheduled by the Green District Association on the direct candidacy in his constituency, he only came in second place.
“The current incidents are not an isolated case, but rather an expression of a deeply rooted structural problem in the green regional association in Berlin,” criticized Mutlu. “Stefan Gelbhaar was not only publicly defamed but also politically destroyed due to a baseless and obviously false allegation of sexual harassment.” The pattern is always the same: “We work with allegations that have no basis whatsoever, but whose destructive power remains irrevocable.”
kra/DPA
Source: Stern
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