Heidi Reichinnek (born 19 April 1988) is a German politician and

Member of the Bundestag Member of the German Parliament (german: Mitglied des Deutschen Bundestages) is the official name given to a deputy in the German Bundestag. ''Member of Parliament'' refers to the elected members of the federal Bundestag Parliament at the Reichs ...

from

Die Linke The Left (german: Die Linke; stylised as and in its logo as ), commonly referred to as the Left Party (german: Die Linkspartei, links=no ), is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 2007 as the result of th ...

. Since 2024, she has been serving as the Leader of The Left in the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...

, alongside

Sören Pellmann Sören Pellmann (born 11 February 1977) is a German politician. Born in Leipzig, Saxony, he represents The Left. Pellmann has served as a member of the Bundestag from Leipzig II in the state of Saxony since 2017. Life From 1983 to 1995 he f ...

Biography

She became interested in politics as a teenager, opposing the

Hartz IV The Hartz concept, also known as Hartz reforms or the Hartz plan, is a set of recommendations submitted by a committee on reforms to the German labour market in 2002. Named after the head of the committee, Peter Hartz, these recommendations went ...

reforms and supporting women's equality and social welfare. In university, she spent a semester abroad in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

in the midst of the

Arab Spring The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in T ...

and witnessed the Egyptian revolution, which furthered her interest in politics. Reichinnek joined The Left in 2015 and was elected to the city council of

Osnabrück Osnabrück (; wep, Ossenbrügge; archaic ''Osnaburg'') is a city in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the river Hase in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. With a population ...

the next year. She ran in the

2017 Lower Saxony state election The 2017 Lower Saxony state election was held on 15 October 2017 to elect the 18th Landtag of Lower Saxony. The incumbent coalition government of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and The Greens led by Minister-President Stephan Weil was defeated. ...

, and placed seventh on the party list, but was not elected. In 2019 she became chairwoman of The Left's

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

branch. She contested the

constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger State (polity), state (a country, administrative region, ...

of Osnabrück City at the 2021 federal election She came in fifth place but was elected to the

on the state list. Within the party, she was considered a supporter of

Sahra Wagenknecht Sahra Wagenknecht (born Sarah Wagenknecht; ; 16 July 1969) is a German politician, economist, author and publicist. Since 2009, she has been a member of the Bundestag for The Left. From 2015 to 2019 she served as parliamentary co-chair of her pa ...

, and in 2019 signed an open letter thanking Wagenknecht for her political work. At the federal Left congress in June 2022, Reichinnek ran unsuccessfully for the party co-leadership, winning 199 votes (35.8%) to incumbent

Janine Wissler Janine Natalie Wißler (born 23 May 1981), known professionally as Janine Wissler, is a German politician who has been co-chairwoman of The Left and member of the Bundestag for Hesse since 2021. Prior to that, she served as member of the Lan ...

's 319 (57.5%). In February 2024, Reichinnek was elected co-leader of the Left's reorganised Bundestag group alongside

, defeating

Clara Bünger Clara Bünger (born 4 July 1986) is a German jurist and politician ( The Left) serving as member of the Bundestag since 2022. Early life and education Bünger was born in Oldenburg in 1986 and grew up in Freiberg. She studied Political scien ...

14 votes to 13.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reichinnek, Heidi 1988 births Living people Female members of the Bundestag 21st-century German women politicians 21st-century German politicians Members of the Bundestag for The Left Members of the Bundestag 2021–2025 Members of the Bundestag for Lower Saxony University of Marburg alumni People from Merseburg