Yellow hair affair: Two worlds are now colliding with the Greens

For Jette Nietzard the matter is clear. The presumption of innocence applies in court, says the leader of the Green Party Youth. “But we are an organization and we are not a court.” “The same thing does not necessarily apply morally as it does judicially.”

It is the first time that the 26-year-old has spoken publicly about the case of the Green Bundestag member Stefan Gelbhaar. His district association prevented Gelbhaar from running again for the Bundestag after allegations of harassment were made against him.

However, it then turned out that key allegations against the 48-year-old were probably fabricated. The person who raised it apparently does not exist. Rundfunk Berlin Brandenburg, which made the alleged allegations public, withdrew its reporting. However, seven people are still sticking to their reports to the party’s ombudsman’s office, to which those affected by sexual violence should contact. It is not known what exactly the transport politician is accused of – the confidentiality of the proceedings should be maintained.

Under these circumstances, was it right to prevent Gelbhaar’s candidacy? Is he a victim? Or perpetrator? Or can it be both? The incident upsets the Greens – underneath lies a deeper conflict that, for many party members, challenges their basic understanding. Two worlds reveal themselves that don’t really fit together, alongside the many weighing up people who also exist and who now want to emphasize the nuances.

In any case, Nietzard sees it this way: “Where power exists, power is abused.” This also happens in a feminist party. “But what it means to be in a feminist party is that those affected are believed.” From the perspective of the party youth, the Greens should fundamentally continue to be on the side of those affected.

But does this also apply now that it is clear that at least some of the allegations, presumably the serious ones, were fabricated? And it is no longer so clear who is actually affected?

Former Bundestag member Özcan Mutlu had already declared his resignation from the party. It is “hypocritical and shameful to so unscrupulously sideline a member of parliament with false accusations,” says his resignation letter.

After Nietzard’s statement, the former long-time member of the Bundestag, Volker Beck, apparently also sees a limit being crossed: “Now that’s enough,” writes the current president of the German-Israeli Society on social media. “We are a party based on the rule of law.” You can only believe those affected, knowing that they are actually affected.

The Greens see themselves as a party that takes feminism, equality and women’s rights seriously. Its so-called ombudsman’s office is the “point of contact for incidents of sexual violence,” according to the website. It is explicitly about putting “fairness for those affected” in the foreground.

The position is a lesson that the party learned from the so-called pedophilia debate, a historical aberration from the early years of the Greens that caught up with the party right in the middle of the 2013 election campaign. This position, of all places, is now at the center of the yellow hair affair, which threatens to overshadow the 2025 election campaign.

The focus on those affected is an important starting point for years of me-too debates. The movement gained momentum after Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was accused of sexual harassment in 2017. Me-too is also about the fact that it is often difficult for women to prove that injustice has happened to them. That it is about power structures, that some of the allegations in court do not lead to convictions because the incidents often happen without witnesses and in the end all too often there is one statement against another – which does not necessarily mean that no injustice has occurred.

In background discussions with Greens these days, the word “disservice” keeps coming up. Regardless of how the Gelbhaar case ends in the end, it already seems clear: considerable damage has been done to the fight against sexual violence and discrimination, which many people are fighting here.

In social debates on the topic, the argument has always been that women could use these accusations as a weapon to harm men – they could hardly defend themselves against public condemnation. The fact that at least parts of the allegations against Gelbhaar were fabricated provides this argument with ammunition. Men who are shocked by the possible false conviction and who even express fear that they could become victims of what they call a “campaign” can also be found in the green grassroots.

Before a meeting on Tuesday of this week, 18 Greens from Gelbhaar’s Berlin-Pankow district association initially wanted the district association to apologize to him for “removing him as a candidate for the Bundestag without a clear explanation of the serious allegations.”

But that didn’t happen in the end. The meeting was not held publicly, but in a room on the ground floor of a cultural center. From outside, behind large panes of glass, you could see Yellowhair walking around the room and talking to party friends. No, he doesn’t like to hide.

At the end of the meeting there was a compromise: everyone condemned the fact that the alleged forgery not only damaged the party, but also “all women who are victims of sexual violence and harassment.” It was noted that Gelbhaar had also become a “victim of fabricated allegations,” which had caused him serious political and personal damage. “We expressly regret this.” However, there was explicitly no official apology, also because seven other people are sticking with their complaint against Gelbhaar to the ombudsman.

The leadership of the federal party formulates it similarly. You strive for balance. A commission will now take care of clarifying the events and the other reports available. The Greens commissioned Annemarie Lütkes, former Green Minister of Justice in Schleswig-Holstein, and Jerzy Montag, ex-MP and non-professional judge at the Bavarian Constitutional Court, to handle the case. They should also put the existing structures to the test.

No matter what the end result is: the damage has been done – for the Greens, for the debate about sexual violence, for those affected. Perhaps at the end of the clarification it will also be clear that Gelbhaar was unfairly deprived of his political career. And then?

A citizens’ consultation hour in his Pankow constituency was announced on Gelbhaar’s website for Tuesday. He didn’t show up himself. A few party members were met in front of the shop door who wanted to “encourage” him.

Someone who turned around on his folding bike in front of the locked door shouted as he drove away: “All this shit!” Most Greens would probably agree with this statement – ​​although perhaps for different reasons.