Özlem Demirel

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Özlem Demirel (2017)

Özlem Alev Demirel (born March 10, 1984 in Malatya , Turkey ) is a Turkish- German politician ( Die Linke ) of Kurdish origin. Demirel has been politically active since her youth and was a member of the Cologne City Council (2004–2010) and the North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament (2010–2012). She has been a member of the European Parliament since the 2019 European elections , in which she ran together with Martin Schirdewan as the top candidate for her party .

Life

As a child, Özlem Demirel came to Germany with her family in 1989 . After graduating from high school she made a study of political science , comparative , constitutional , social and economic history at the University of Bonn with master's degree. She is married, has two children and lives in Düsseldorf .

politics

Political engagement as a student

Even as a student, Demirel was politically active. She was a board member from 1999 to 2003 in the district students representation in Cologne from 2000 to 2004 Member of the State Executive Committee of the country's students of North Rhine-Westphalia . From 2002 to 2004 she was also a delegate for the federal committee of the federal school conference . As part of this, Demirel co-organized the student demonstrations against the Afghanistan and Iraq wars in 2001 and 2002 and against tuition fees in 2002 . Özlem Demirel is also a member of the Federation of Democratic Workers' Associations (DIDF) for workers of Turkish and Kurdish origin. From 1999 to 2004 she was on the federal board of DIDF youth.

Entry into the Cologne City Council

Özlem Demirel in the left-wing parliamentary group of the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament (2011)

From 2004 to 2010 Demirel was a full member of the Cologne City Council as a member of the left-wing parliamentary group . There she worked on the School and Continuing Education Committee and was a deputy on the Integration Council . Demirel also works in the coordination group of the LAG Migration, Integration and Anti-Racism, to which she has been a member since February 2009. In 2008 she also organized blockades against the anti-Islamization congress of Pro NRW .

Engagement at the state political level

In the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2010 , she was elected to the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament via the state list ( list number 9) of her party. There she was a full member of the Committee for Local Policy and the Committee for Economy, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Energy. She was the local political spokeswoman for the Left Party in the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia. She was also a member of the Advisory Board for Housing Promotion of the NRW Bank and a member of the Study Commission on Housing Change and New Financial Investors on the Housing Markets in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Spokesman for the Left, Christian Leye and Özlem Demirel (2016)

Until June 7, 2011, she was also a member of the Committee for Building, Housing and Transport as well as spokesperson for the parliamentary group on building and housing policy. Since June 7, 2011 Özlem Demirel was Parliamentary Director of the group. She was thus also an advisory member of the council of elders. In the state elections on May 13, 2012 , her party left the state parliament.

From summer 2012 to spring 2014 Demirel was federal chairwoman of the DIDF. In June 2014, together with Ralf Michalowsky, she was elected state spokeswoman for the North Rhine-Westphalia State Association of the Left . In June 2016 she was re-elected as state spokesperson - this time together with Christian Leye .

In December 2016 she was ranked first on the reserve list and thus - together with Christian Leye, who was elected second - as the top candidate for the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia 2017 . Under her leadership, the Left was able to more than double its number of votes compared to the 2012 election, but failed with 4.9% in the 2017 state elections just under the five percent hurdle and thus once again missed out on entry into the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament .

Entry into the European Parliament

Demirel at the federal party conference of Die Linke in February 2019, where she was nominated for second place in the list for the 2019 European elections

Together with Martin Schirdewan , Die Linke nominated them as a top duo for the 2019 European elections . The left reached 5.5 percent in the election and thus won five of the 96 German seats. Like her party colleagues, she joined the Confederal Group of the European United Left / Nordic Green Left . For the Group, she is a member of the Subcommittee on Security and Defense , of which she was elected Vice-Chair, and the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs . She is a deputy member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs .

Web links

Commons : Özlem Demirel  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Katja Kipping and Bernd Riexinger: Top duo for the 2019 European elections. Die Linke, September 24, 2018, accessed on September 19, 2019 .
  2. ^ Özlem Demirel at the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia
  3. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Election result list position 1
  5. ↑ results of the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2017 , accessed on May 16, 2017 wdr.de .
  6. ↑ Home | Özlem DEMIREL | MPs | European Parliament. Retrieved September 19, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Demirel, Özlem
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Demirel, Özlem Alev (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Turkish-German politician (Die Linke) of Kurdish origin, MdL
DATE OF BIRTH March 10, 1984
PLACE OF BIRTH Malatya , Turkey