Ates Nils Gürpınar (born 25 September 1984) is a German politician of The Left who has been serving as member of the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

since 2021 and one of six deputy leaders of his party since 2018. He has also been co-chairman of the

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

n branch of The Left since 2016.

Life and career

Gürpınar was born to a Turkish father and a German mother. He attended the Edith-Stein-Schule in

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...

and earned his Abitur in 2003. He studied at the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg from 2004 to 2011 and graduated with a magister degree in media science and a master's in ethics of text cultures. He also studied modern German literary history and philosophy but did not earn a degree. He teaches media studies and economics at the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences.

Political career

Gürpınar joined The Left in 2010. He became politically engaged due to the

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

and

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

wars, as well as the Europe-wide student protests in which he participated in 2009. He became press spokesman for the Bavarian party branch in 2012, and was state managing director from 2014 to 2016. In 2016, he was elected co-leader of the state party. In the

2017 German federal election The 2017 German federal election was held in Germany on 24 September 2017 to elect the List of members of the 19th Bundestag, members of the 19th Bundestag. At stake were at least 598 seats in the Bundestag, as well as 111 Overhang seat, overhan ...

, he stood in Munich North constituency and won 6.0% of the vote. He was not elected. Along with his counterpart Eva Bulling-Schröter, he was lead candidate for The Left in the 2018 Bavarian state election, but the party failed to win any seats. In February 2021, Gürpınar was elected one of six federal deputy leaders of The Left. At a party congress, he was nominated with 52% of votes and confirmed with 77%. In the 2021 German federal election, Gürpınar was elected to the

in fourth place on the state list. He also ran in the Rosenheim constituency, winning 2.2% of votes.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gurpinar, Ates Living people 1984 births German politicians of Turkish descent Politicians from Darmstadt Members of the Bundestag for Bavaria Members of the Bundestag for Die Linke Members of the Bundestag 2021–2025 University of Erlangen–Nuremberg alumni Members of the Bundestag 2025–2029