The executive board of Berlin’s Left parliamentary group has decided to draft a motion to exclude Vanessa Emde. The dispute has therefore moved from public criticism into a specific internal procedure. But no exclusion has yet been decided.
According to a spokesperson for the group, the motion is to be submitted to the executive board and parliamentary group next week. At a planned vote next Tuesday, two thirds of the group’s 44 Left lawmakers would have to approve it for Emde to be excluded. It remains unclear whether that majority exists.
The group leadership, quoted by dpa, bases the move on more than the public controversy over Emde’s statements on the Middle East. It says Emde has repeatedly indicated that she does not accept the foundations for the group’s joint work or the rules agreed within it, undermining trust in shared commitments. That is the leadership’s stated case, rather than an established finding about Emde.
Emde rejects the allegations. Berlin’s Left party leadership had already called on her last Friday to give up her mandate. She entered the Berlin parliament on 20 September with a direct mandate in Neukölln after receiving 46.2 percent of first votes.
The planned motion matters because it requires the parliamentary group to turn its criticism into a decision under a demanding threshold. That threshold is appropriate. Exclusion from a parliamentary group should not follow simply from public outrage, and contested allegations cannot substitute for the vote itself. The decisive question is whether two thirds of the group endorse the leadership’s reasoning.
Sources
- Der Spiegel · Source date: 2026-11-10
Independent editorial content. WUA is not affiliated with any political party. 2026-11-10