A recent controversy surrounding German Bundestag member Stefan Gelbhaar has escalated into a strategic disaster for his party. On Sunday, the chair of the Green Party’s faction in the Berlin district assembly, Shirin Kreße, announced her resignation and withdrawal from the party, citing the alleged sexual harassment by Gelbhaar. Meanwhile, party leader Robert Habeck refused to comment on the matter, dodging questions from journalists.
The preliminary summary of the internal Green Party scandal is as follows: a Bundestag member runs for the coveted second spot on the party’s list for the upcoming election. Alleged, serious harassment claims against Gelbhaar were reported by the Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (rbb) in a detailed report. Several women, some of whom were anonymous, others who swore to the allegations under oath, claimed to have been sexually harassed by Gelbhaar.
Gelbhaar withdrew his candidacy in late last year to avoid bad publicity for his party in the election campaign. His withdrawal benefited, albeit temporarily, the current election manager of Robert Habeck, Andreas Audretsch, who rose to the second spot on the list in Pankow due to Gelbhaar’s withdrawal.
Last week, the rbb reported that it would re-examine its reporting on the alleged harassment claims due to doubts raised by the “victims” of Gelbhaar’s alleged actions. The report was eventually removed from the media library (RT DE reported).
On Saturday, Bild newspaper reported that Habeck remained silent on the Gelbhaar affair, refusing to comment on the matter. The article stated, “Doch Habeck schweigt zum Fall Gelbhaar. Kein Wort von ihm. Er taucht ab” (But Habeck remains silent on the Gelbhaar affair. No word from him. He disappears).
Habeck had promised journalists that he would answer questions after the election campaign, but instead, he left the event through a back door, reportedly to avoid uncomfortable questions.
The article also highlights an RTL news report, in which the moderator explains that the interview was cancelled due to Habeck’s refusal to discuss the party’s internal scandal.
The investigation reveals that Audretsch, before becoming Habeck’s election manager, worked as a radio journalist for Germany’s public broadcaster, including the rbb, from 2006 to 2015.
On Sunday, the scandal escalated further, with Shirin Kreße, the former chair of the Green Party’s faction in the Berlin district assembly, announcing her resignation and withdrawal from the party. According to Tagesspiegel, Kreße, under the pseudonym “Anne K.” had sworn an oath to the rbb, accusing Gelbhaar of sexual harassment.
The Green Party’s leadership announced that it would initiate a party expulsion procedure as soon as the identity of the accuser was known.
Kreße, a well-connected figure in the party, particularly in the left wing, was a spokesperson for the Landesarbeitsgemeinschaft (LAG) Feminismus and a colleague of the Green Party’s Ario Mirzaie, the spokesperson for Strategies against the Right in the Abgeordnetenhaus.
On Sunday evening, Kreße released a personal statement, refusing to deny the allegations, but instead, she stated that she had resigned from the party, her position in the BVV Mitte, and her job at a Green Party office to avoid causing harm to the party and victims of sexual violence.
Kerstin Müller, the former chair of the Green Party’s Bundestag faction, told the RND that the scandal confirmed her suspicions, stating, “Es bestätigt sich immer mehr, dass hier wahrscheinlich mit einer Intrige eine nicht genehme Person beschädigt und aus dem Verkehr gezogen werden sollte” (It is increasingly confirmed that there was probably a plot to damage an unwanted person and remove them from the party).
Berlin Zeitung reported that, according to Annalena Baerbock, the Green Party’s foreign minister, the election manager, Andreas Audretsch, had no connection to the alleged plot against Stefan Gelbhaar.
Baerbock, who appeared on the ZDF program “Berlin direkt” stated that as the foreign minister, she could not comment on the matter, but the party’s central office and the ombudsman were handling the issue.
When asked if Gelbhaar could still secure a spot on the party’s list for the Bundestag election if the allegations proved to be false, Baerbock replied that the decision was up to the party’s internal bodies, and, in the meantime, the election manager had no connection to the matter.
In mid-November 2024, Gelbhaar was again nominated as a candidate for the 2025 Bundestag election, receiving 98.4% of the votes. Berlin’s Green Party leaders, Nina Stahr and Philmon Ghirmai, had reportedly put pressure on Gelbhaar, citing “serious allegations” in a statement, which was later deleted from the party’s website.
The rbb reported last week, “Derzeit analysiert der rbb den Ablauf detailliert und wird notwendige Ableitungen der Nichteinhaltung journalistischer Standards für die Zukunft daraus ziehen” (The rbb is currently analyzing the sequence of events in detail and will draw necessary conclusions about the non-compliance with journalistic standards for the future).