Theresa Reintke (born 9 May 1987) is a German politician who has been serving as a member of 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 ...

from

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

since 2014. She is co-president of the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament. She is a member of the

Alliance 90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a Green politics, green List of political parties in Germany, political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens ...

, part of The Greens–European Free Alliance. From 2011 to 2013 she was the spokesperson of the

Federation of Young European Greens The Federation of Young European Greens, often referred to as FYEG ( ), is an umbrella organisation that gathers young green movements and organisations across Europe with 40,000 members. FYEG's aim is to defend climate and social justice on the ...

Early life and education

Reintke was born and raised in

Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; wep, Gelsenkiärken) is the 25th most populous city of Germany and the 11th most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher River (a tributary of the Rhine), it lies ...

."Biographie: Terry Reintke"
''

Hart aber fair ''hart aber fair'' (English: "hard but fair") is a German weekly political talk show. In the 75-minute broadcast on Monday evening on Das Erste, presenter Frank Plasberg discusses a controversial topic with his guests. Spectators receive add ...

'',

Das Erste Das Erste (; "The First") is the flagship national television channel of the ARD association of public broadcasting corporations in Germany. ''Das Erste'' is jointly operated by the nine regional public broadcasting corporations that are member ...

, 22 October 2012 . She studied political science at the

Otto-Suhr-Institut The Otto-Suhr-Institut für Politikwissenschaft (''Otto Suhr Institute for Political Science'', also ''OSI'') is a prestigious research institute of the Free University of Berlin. It is the leading political science institution in Germany and one ...

of 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 ...

, where her thesis was on "Local

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

s and sexualised violence in the Balkan conflicts". She also worked as a legislative advisor at 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 ...

for representative .

Political career

Reintke was a member of the executive board of German Green Youth from 2008 to 2009, and from 2011 to 2013 was the spokesperson of the Federation of Young European Greens. Elected to the European Parliament in the 2014 European election, Reintke served as member of the

Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality The Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) is a committee of the European Parliament. Membership Chair Vice Chairs *Eugenia Rodríguez Palop * Sylwia Spurek * Elissavet Vozemberg-Vrionidi *Robert Biedroń Members *Regina Bastos ...

, the

Committee on Employment and Social Affairs The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) is a committee of the European Parliament. It is responsible for issues of employment and social policy, including labour rights, social security, inclusion, free movement for workers and pensio ...

and the

Committee on Regional Development The Committee on Regional Development (REGI) is a committee of the European Parliament. Its current chair, elected on 10 July 2019, is Younous Omarjee Younous Omarjee (born 30 September 1969 in Saint-Denis, Réunion) is a French politician who ...

during her first term. In 2019, she moved to the

Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) is a committee of the European Parliament that is responsible for protecting civil liberties and human rights, as listed in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. ...

. In this capacity, she is her parliamentary group’s

shadow rapporteur A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word. For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Eur ...

on Poland. In addition to her committee assignments, Reintke co-chair of the

European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights The European Parliament Intergroup on LGBTI Rights is an intergroup Intergroups are formed of Members of the European Parliament from any political group and any committee, with a view to holding informal exchanges of views on particular subjects ...

. She is also a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Anti-Corruption and the European Parliament Intergroup on Trade Unions. Following the 2019 elections, Reintke was part of a cross-party working group in charge of drafting the European Parliament's work program on rule of law, borders and migration. She has since been serving as deputy chairwoman of the

Greens–European Free Alliance The Greens/European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) is a political group of the European Parliament composed primarily of green and regionalist political parties. Formed following the 1999 European elections for the 5th European Parliament, th ...

(Greens/EFA) group, under the leadership of co-chairs

Ska Keller Franziska Maria "Ska" Keller (; born 22 November 1981) is a German politician and member of the European Parliament for the Germany constituency. She is a member of the Alliance 90/The Greens, part of the European Green Party. She is co-presiden ...

and

Philippe Lamberts Philippe Lamberts (born 14 March 1963) is a Belgian politician serving as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2009. He is a member of Ecolo, within the Greens–European Free Alliance. Education and early career Lamberts graduated as ...

. Since 2021, Reintke has been part of the Parliament's delegation to the EU-UK Parliamentary Assembly, which provides parliamentary oversight over the implementation of the

EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement The EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) is a free trade agreement signed on 30 December 2020, between the European Union (EU), the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), and the United Kingdom (UK). It provisionally applied from ...

. In the negotiations to form a so-called

traffic light coalition In German politics, a traffic light coalition (german: Ampelkoalition) is a coalition government of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Alliance 90/The Greens. It is named after the parties' tra ...

of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

(SPD), the Green Party and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) following the 2021 German elections, Reintke was part of her party's delegation in the working group on European affairs, co-chaired by

Udo Bullmann Udo Bullmann (born 8 June 1956) is a German politician who has been serving as a member of the European Parliament since 1999. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), part of the Party of European Socialists. Personal lif ...

Franziska Brantner Franziska Katharina Brantner (born 24 August 1979) is a German politician of the Green Party who has been serving as a member of the German Parliament since 2013. In addition to her parliamentary mandate, Brantner has been a Parliamentary State ...

and

Nicola Beer Nicola Beer (born 23 January 1970) is a German lawyer and politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2019, and as one of its Vice-Presidents. Early life and career Beer finish ...

. In the negotiations to form a

coalition government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...

under the leadership of

Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia The Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Ministerpräsident des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen), also referred to as Premier or Prime Minister, is the head of government of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (''NRW''). The po ...

Hendrik Wüst Hendrik Josef Wüst (born 19 July 1975) is a German politician currently serving as Minister-President of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. He is a member of the Christian democratic and liberal-conservative CDU. In October 2021 he succeeded ...

following the 2022 state elections, Reintke was part of her party’s delegation.

Other activities

Heinrich Böll Foundation The Heinrich Böll Foundation (german: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung e.V., HBS) is a German, legally independent political foundation. Affiliated with the German Green Party, it was founded in 1997 when three predecessors merged. The foundation was n ...

, Member of the Advisory Board on Participation, Gender Democracy and Anti-Discrimination

Political positions

In 2021, Reintke joined forces with

David McAllister David James McAllister (born 12 January 1971) is a German politician who has been a member of the European Parliament since 2014. He is a member of the Christian Democratic Union, part of the European People's Party. He is the current Vice Pr ...

and

Radosław Sikorski Radosław Tomasz "Radek" Sikorski (; born 23 February 1963) is a Polish politician and journalist who is a Member of the European Parliament. He was Marshal of the Sejm from 2014 to 2015 and Minister of Foreign Affairs in Donald Tusk's cabinet b ...

in initiating a letter of 145 member of the European Parliament to Commission President

Ursula von der Leyen Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen (; Albrecht, born 8 October 1958) is a German politician who has been serving as the president of the European Commission since 2019. She served in the Cabinet of Germany, German federal government between 2005 an ...

and

Education Commissioner Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...

Mariya Gabriel Mariya Ivanova Gabriel ( bg, Мария Иванова Габриел) (''née'' Nedelcheva, bg, Неделчева) (born 20 May 1979) is a Bulgarian politician and a member of the GERB party serving as European Commissioner for Innovation, R ...

in which they called for allowing Scotland and Wales to rejoin the European Union’s

Erasmus+ Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his Christian name, baptismal name, given after Erasmus of Formia, Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used fro ...

mobility scheme.

Controversy

In 2014, Reintke reported on her first week as a Member of the European Parliament in a widely discussed

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

video with fellow Green representatives

Jan Philipp Albrecht Jan Philipp Albrecht (born 20 December 1982) is a German politician of the Alliance '90/The Greens, part of The Greens-European Free Alliance. From 2018 to 2022, he has been serving as Minister for Energy, Agriculture, the Environment, Nature a ...

and

, which led to criticism of her ability to work with opponents. Along with Volker Beck,

Felix Banaszak Felix Banaszak (born 24 October 1989) is a German politician of the Alliance 90/The Greens who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag since the 2021 German federal election. Early career During his studies, Banaszak worked as legislat ...

and

Max Lucks Max Lucks (born 19 April 1997) is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag in the 20th Bundestag that has been elected in the German federal election on 26 September 2021. Political career ...

, Reintke was temporarily detained when Beck wanted to speak publicly at

Istanbul Pride Istanbul Pride ( tr, İstanbul Onur Yürüyüşü) is a pride parade and LGBT demonstration held annually in Turkey's biggest city, Istanbul since 2003. Participants assemble in Taksim Square before marching the entire length of İstiklal Avenu ...

in June 2016.

Recognition

In December 2017, Reintke was featured in

TIME magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...

's coverage of their Person of the Year issue, as part of the "Silence Breakers" honoured for speaking out against sexual abuse and harassment.

Personal life

Reintke is in a relationship with

Mélanie Vogel Mélanie Vogel, (born 22 May 1985 in Marseille) is a French academic and politician of Europe Ecology – The Greens (EELV) who has been serving as a member of the French Senate since 2021, representing the constituency of French citizens living ...

. They live in Brussels.Marceau Taburet (27 September 2021)
Révolution? Mélanie Vogel, la nouvelle élue écologiste qui espère bousculer le Sénat
''

Libération ''Libération'' (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Initially positioned on the far-left of France's ...

''.

References

External links

Personal website

at the European Parliament {{DEFAULTSORT:Reintke, Terry 1987 births Living people People from Gelsenkirchen Alliance 90/The Greens MEPs MEPs for Germany 2014–2019 MEPs for Germany 2019–2024 21st-century women MEPs for Germany German LGBT politicians