Martin Schirdewan (born 12 July 1975) is a German journalist and politician who is serving as co-chairman of The Left since June 2022. He has sat as a

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 ...

(MEP) since 2017, and was elected co-chair of The Left in the European Parliament (GUE/NGL) parliamentary group in 2019.

Political career

Schirdewan was born in East Berlin. From 1998 to 2003, he studied at the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

, before achieving a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

in 2007. Between 2001 and 2008, Schirdewan was editor of the magazine (''Creative Utopia''), published by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. From 2006 until 2015, he was a researcher for a member from The Left and was senior editor of , the youth magazine of socialist daily newspaper . From 2015 until his appointment to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

, he was head of the Brussels office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and of its Athens "liaison office", as well as establishing a liaison office in Madrid. From 2012 to 2015 and again in 2018, Schirdewan served on the party executive of The Left. Since being appointed to the European Parliament, Schirdewan has served as a member of the

Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) is a committee of the European Parliament which is responsible for the regulation of financial services, the free movement of capital and payments, taxation and competition policies, oversight ...

(ECON), and as a substitute for the

Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection The Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) is a committee of the European Parliament. Work of the committee The committee is responsible for: * coordination at Community level of national legislation in the sphere of th ...

(IMCO). Schirdewan was one of The Left's top candidates in the

2019 European Parliament election in Germany The 2019 European Parliament election in Germany was held on 26 May 2019, electing the 96 members of the national Germany constituency to the European Parliament. Both the CDU/CSU and SPD suffered major losses, while the Greens became the seco ...

alongside Özlem Demirel. The party won 5.5% of votes and five seats, making it the joint second largest party in the GUE/NGL group by seat count, behind Syriza and tied with

La France Insoumise La France Insoumise (FI or LFI; ; "France Unbowed") is a left-wing populist political party in France, launched in 2016 by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, then a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and former co-president of the Left Party (PG). It aims ...

. In the new Parliament, Schirdewan was elected co-chair of the GUE/NGL faction alongside French MEP

Manon Aubry Manon Aubry (; born 22 December 1989) is a French politician representing la France Insoumise. A former Oxfam France spokeswoman, she won a seat in the 2019 European Parliament election and is co-chair of The Left in the European Parliament ...

. At a federal Left congress in June 2022, Schirdewan was elected co-leader of the party with 341 votes (61.3%) alongside 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 La ...

. He was challenged by several candidates, including Sören Pellmann, who won 176 votes (31.6%). Within the party, he is considered a reformer close in outlook to moderates such as Dietmar Bartsch.

Political Positions

On 2 March 2022, Schirdewan was one of 13 MEPs who voted against a motion condemning the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

. He stated that, though he condemned the invasion as a blatant breach of international law, he opposed arms shipments to Ukraine on the grounds that it violated EU directives on exports to war and crisis zones. On 15 September 2022, he was one of 16 MEPs who voted against condemning President Daniel Ortega of

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

for human rights violations, in particular the arrest of Bishop Rolando Álvarez.

Personal life

Schirdewan is a grandson of

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

politician Karl Schirdewan and his wife Gisela.

References

External links

*
Profile
on the

website * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schirdewan, Martin 1975 births Living people People from East Berlin Politicians from Berlin Journalists from Berlin The Left (Germany) MEPs German male journalists German political journalists German newspaper editors 21st-century German journalists Luxemburgists MEPs for Germany 2014–2019 MEPs for Germany 2019–2024