Melis Sekmen

Melis Sekmen
Sekmen in 2023
Member of the Bundestag
for Baden-Württemberg
Incumbent
Assumed office
26 October 2021
Personal details
Born (1993-09-26) 26 September 1993 (age 31)
Mannheim, Germany
Political partyAlliance 90/The Greens (until July 2024)
CDU (since July 2024)

Melis Sekmen (born 26 September 1993) is a German politician. She is a member of the German Bundestag from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). She previously was a member of the Alliance 90/The Greens party. She is of Turkish descent.[1]

Political career

In the Bundestag, Sekmen serves on the Committee on Economic Affairs. In addition to her committee assignments, she has been a member of the German delegation to the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly since 2022.[2]

Elected as a Green in 2021, she resigned from her former party and its Bundestag fraction on 1 July 2024, intending to apply for membership in the CDU and the CDU/CSU (Union) parliamentary group. Sekmen said, "My idea of how and in what style politics is done has evolved."[3] Sekmen's differences of opinion with the Green Party's majority line had recently become apparent primarily in the areas of migration and the economy; for example, she had called for a "change of course" in migration and integration policy. She also cited her recognition of the Union's new basic program as a reason for the switch.[4][5] On 9 July, Sekmen was admitted to the CDU.[6] She is thus the first Green member of the Bundestag to switch to the Union parties since Vera Lengsfeld in 1996,[7] and the third CDU member of Turkish origin after Cemile Giousouf and Serap Güler.

References

  1. ^ "18 lawmakers of Turkish descent win seat in Germany's Bundestag". Hürriyet Daily News. 28 September 2021. Retrieved 23 January 2022.
  2. ^ Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly Bundestag.
  3. ^ "Sekmen wechselt zu Unionsfraktion" (in German). 2 July 2024. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
  4. ^ "Wir brauchen einen Kurswechsel in der Migrations- und Integrationspolitik". Melis Sekmen MdB (in German). 11 June 2024.
  5. ^ "Obfrau der Grünen im Wirtschaftsausschuss wechselt zur CDU". Manager (in German). 2 July 2024. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  6. ^ "Ex-Grüne: CDU-Kreisverband Mannheim nimmt Melis Sekmen auf". SWR Aktuell (in German). 9 July 2024. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  7. ^ "Melis Sekmen: Grünen-Abgeordnete wechselt zur Union". Die Welt (in German). 2 July 2024. Retrieved 24 July 2024.