Guido Reil is a German politician who is serving as an Alternative for Germany

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

Career

Reil grew up in a modest family and became a miner after leaving high school. He was a foreman at the Prosper-Haniel mine in

Bottrop Bottrop () is a city in west-central Germany, on the Rhine–Herne Canal, in North Rhine-Westphalia. Located in the Ruhr industrial area, Bottrop adjoins Essen, Oberhausen, Gladbeck, and Dorsten. The city had been a coal-mining and rail cent ...

before training as a locksmith. Reil was also a union leader. He was a member of Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) for twenty six years and was elected as a councilor for the party in Essen in 2009. However, he withdrew his SPD membership in 2016 in protest at the party's immigration policies and disagreements with Essen's SPD chairman

Thomas Kutschaty Thomas Kutschaty (born 12 June 1968) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as leader of the SPD in North Rhine-Westphalia since 2021. Kutschaty has been a member of the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphal ...

. As a member of the SPD, Reil had attended to organise a demonstration against the construction of a migrant centre in Essen, however, the then Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia

Hannelore Kraft Hannelore Kraft (''née'' Külzhammer; born 12 June 1961) is a German politician. She served as the Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia from 2010 until 2017. Kraft was the first woman to serve as head of government of this state and was ...

intervened and got the event canceled.Frank Stenglein, Wolfgang Kintscher
''Essener Ex-SPD-Ratsherr Guido Reil will der AfD beitreten''
WAZ, 1. Juli 2016. Reil joined the AfD in 2016 and ran in the

2017 German federal election Federal elections were held in Germany on 24 September 2017 to elect the members of the 19th Bundestag. At stake were at least 598 seats in the Bundestag, as well as 111 overhang and leveling seats determined thereafter. The Christian Democr ...

in the directly elected constituency of Essen II where he finished third and was not elected.Frank Stenglein
''Kein Mandat – Guido Reil will nun in den AfD-Bundesvorstand''
WAZ, 25. September 2017. In the

2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held between 23 and 26 May 2019, the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent more than 512 million peop ...

he was elected as number 2 on the AfD's list behind

Jörg Meuthen Jörg Hubert Meuthen (; born 29 June 1961) is a German economist serving as a member of the European Parliament for the Centre Party. He was the leading candidate of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) for the 2019 European Parliament election. H ...

. Reil's campaigned focused on the "rescue of the Ruhr area" and preventing the European Union from taking more powers.W. Kintscher
''AfD-Frontmann Guido Reil kandidiert fürs Europa-Parlament''
Neue Ruhr Zeitung, 23. September 2018.

References

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Living people MEPs for Germany 2019–2024 Alternative for Germany MEPs Year of birth missing (living people) Anti-Romanian sentiment {{Germany-MEP-stub