Elke Twesten

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Elke Twesten (2009)

Elke Twesten (born July 7, 1963 in Scheeßel ) is a German politician ( CDU , formerly Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen ) and was a member of the Lower Saxony state parliament until the state election in Lower Saxony in 2017 . By converting from the Greens to the CDU in August 2017, the red-green state government of Prime Minister Stephan Weil ( SPD ) lost its parliamentary one-vote majority.

Family, education and work

Twesten grew up in her place of birth in Scheeßel, Lower Saxony , and graduated from the Scheeßel oak school in 1982 . She then graduated from the State Foreign Language School in Hamburg as a foreign language secretary . After working for a year, she embarked on a civil service career and studied from 1984 to 1987 at the Federal University of Applied Sciences in the department of finance (customs) at what was then Sigmaringen . She graduated with a degree in finance and thus qualified for the higher service of the federal customs administration . From 1987 until she moved into the Lower Saxony state parliament in 2008, she worked in the customs department of what was then the Oberfinanzdirektion Hamburg, interrupted by about 18-month parental leave . The main rights and obligations arising from the civil servant relationship with the federal government are initially suspended for the duration of the state parliament mandate. In the 2017/18 winter semester, she enrolled at the Buxtehude University 21 in the two-year part-time MBA program in leadership skills .

Elke Twesten lives in Scheeßel, is divorced and has three daughters.

Political career

In 1997 Twesten became a member of the Greens. She was a councilwoman in Scheeßel and has been a member of the Rotenburg district council since 2006 . In January 2007 she was elected deputy state chairman of the Greens in Lower Saxony . She ran for the state elections in Lower Saxony in 2008 as a direct candidate in the constituency 53 Rotenburg and received 8.2% of the first votes. Since the Greens won 12 seats, they received a seat in the state parliament over number 9 on the state list . In the 2013 state elections , Twesten was the 19th out of 20 applicants from the Greens who entered the state parliament via the state list.

In 2013, Twesten intended to run for the district election in the Rotenburg (Wümme) district, although the heads of the district parliamentary groups of the Greens, SPD and WFB had already agreed on a non-party applicant. According to a press report, it was difficult to prevent her from running. In 2014 Twesten stood for the Greens in the district election in the Stade district . With 14% of the vote it was defeated by the incumbent incumbent Michael Roesberg (56%) and Robert Crumbach (SPD) (30%).

Change of party and faction

As a politician, Twesten was a supporter of black and green . After fierce disputes about the party's strategic direction in their district association, the members of the Greens in the Rotenburg state electoral district elected Birgit Brennecke instead of Twesten as a direct candidate for the state elections in January 2018 at their assembly meeting on May 30, 2017 . Previously, Twesten had left open a possible direct candidacy in the neighboring state electoral district of Bremervörde ("preferably to run where I live"), then only denied it ("Not for the Rotenburg district, no."). The state delegates' conference of the Greens to draw up the state list was scheduled for August 11-13, 2017.

On August 4, 2017, Twesten announced at a joint press conference with CDU parliamentary group leader Björn Thümler that she was leaving the party and parliamentary group of Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen and announced that she would join the CDU parliamentary group. The red-green state government thus lost its parliamentary majority. Twesten said she saw her political future in the CDU. According to his own statement, Twesten was aiming for a long-term mandate in the Bundestag or in the European Parliament . A state parliament candidacy for the CDU was in fact no longer considered because the party had already completed the candidate list with the decision on the state list on May 6, 2017.

Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) demanded after West West's exit from the parliamentary group and party of Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen a rapid dissolution of parliament and immediate new state elections. Her change of party was also "particularly disreputable" because she did not receive her mandate directly, but only through the state list of the Greens. The Greens federal manager Michael Kellner demanded the return of their mandate, since Westden's actions were a “falsification of the will of the voters” and betrayal of the red-green election victory of 2013. Twesten rejected the allegations; what she is now experiencing from Green politicians is "partly vile , deeply insulting and humanly indecent". Your internal party criticism was ignored and the concerns of the citizens were not taken into account.

The SPD and the Greens assumed that Twesten had been promised advantages by the CDU in order to make the move easier. Both denied this, but Twesten admitted that in the two weeks before their transfer they had had concrete talks with opposition leader Thümler and the CDU state executive. The initiative came from both sides, and they "moved towards each other". When asked whether the first inquiries had come from the CDU, Twesten replied: "No comment."

Members of the Green parliamentary group told the weekly newspaper Zeit that even when the parliamentary group positions were distributed at the beginning of the 2013 legislative period, Twesten said in a parliamentary group meeting: “I also have an offer from the CDU parliamentary group.” This was understood to mean that she wanted to strengthen her negotiating position. The parliamentary group leadership then offered her the office of secretary of the state parliament. Twesten became a member of the Presidium of the State Parliament.

Both the parliamentary manager of the Green parliamentary group in the Lower Saxony state parliament, Helge Limburg , and the former state parliament president Rolf Wernstedt (SPD) declared a few days after their exit from the party and state parliamentary group of Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen in the Nordwest-Zeitung that Twesten was involved In conversations with them, I reported an "immoral offer from the CDU". Green group leader Anja Piel also said that Twesten had told several party friends that “she had received offers. She said years ago that she was also given perspectives from other sources. ”However, Piel did not take the statement seriously, as it“ happened from time to time, and very early in the legislative period ”.

On August 7, 2017, Twesten joined the CDU and at the same time became a member of the parliamentary group of Christian Democrats in Lower Saxony, the state parliament decided to dissolve it on August 21, 2017.

As the Bremer Weser-Kurier reported in August 2017, Twesten had applied for the successor to the Bremen women's representative Ulrike Hauffe in the spring of 2017 and was shortlisted. According to the Weser-Kurier , the process shows that "Elke Twesten [...] had long been tired of the Greens parliamentary group in Lower Saxony's state parliament".

Web links

Commons : Elke Twesten  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ § 5 Lower Saxony Deputies Act in conjunction with § 40 Paragraph 1 Clause 2 Federal Civil Servants Act and § 5 Deputies Act (of the federal government)
  2. ↑ "The vortex was predictable"
  3. ^ Lower Saxony State Returning Officer, election to the Lower Saxony State Parliament on January 27, 2008
  4. ^ Lower Saxony State Returning Officer, election to the Lower Saxony State Parliament on January 20, 2013
  5. ↑ Twesten is distancing itself from the SPD. In: Kreiszeitung.de. August 21, 2013. Retrieved August 5, 2017 .
  6. ↑ Stephan Oertel: After renewed quarrels, resignations in the district Greens . In: Kreiszeitung.de . 5th july 2016.
  7. ↑ Red-Green in Lower Saxony is losing majority. In: Spiegel Online . 4th August 2017.
  8. ↑ a b Michael Krüger, Lars Warnecke: Member of the Landtag Elke Twesten on her departure as a direct candidate. In: Kreiszeitung.de . June 2, 2017. Retrieved August 4, 2017.
  9. ↑ Red-Green in Lower Saxony is losing majority. In: Spiegel Online . 4th August 2017.
  10. ↑ Brennecke competes with the Greens against Twesten . In: Kreiszeitung.de . 29 May 2017.
  11. ↑ www.gruene-niedersachsen.de ( Memento from July 6, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on August 5, 2017.
  12. ↑ Ex-Green Twesten defends change to the CDU. In: NDR.de. August 5, 2017. Retrieved August 5, 2017 .
  13. ↑ Red-Green in Lower Saxony loses majority in the state parliament. In: tagesspiegel.de . 4th August 2017.
  14. ↑ Who is Elke Twesten? In: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung online. August 4, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2017 .
  15. ↑ Twesten spoke in June about the CDU offer. In: n-tv.de. August 4, 2018. Retrieved August 8, 2017 .
  16. ↑ Michael Bröcker: Green MP Twesten changes to the CDU: Red-Green loses majority in Lower Saxony. In: Rheinische Post online. August 4, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2017 .
  17. ↑ Press release of the CDU regional association from May 6, 2017 , accessed on October 16, 2017
  18. ^ Government crisis : parties for early election. In: NDR.de. August 5, 2017. Retrieved August 5, 2017 .
  19. ^ Robert Roßmann: Elke Twesten: Mandate and Moral. In: Süddeutsche.de . August 7, 2017. Retrieved August 10, 2017 .
  20. ↑ Twesten should give back her mandate. In: wallstreet-online.de. August 4, 2017. Retrieved August 5, 2017 .
  21. ↑ Twesten calls ex-party friends "vile and humanly indecent" . In: Spiegel Online . August 6, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
  22. ↑ a b Ex-Greens: Twesten is said to have received an “immoral offer” from the CDU. In: Spiegel Online. August 6, 2017. Retrieved August 7, 2017 .
  23. ^ "Elke Twesten in conversation with Martin Zagatta", Deutschlandfunk August 5, 2017
  24. ↑ Robert Pausch: Twesten is said to have threatened to change earlier. In: time online. August 8, 2017. Retrieved August 9, 2017 .
  25. ↑ Rainer Woratschka, Antje Sirleschtov: Green politician: Twesten spoke about the “immoral offer” of the CDU. In: tagesspiegel.de. August 6, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2017 .
  26. ^ Gunnar Reichenbachs: Defector Elke Twesten: References to "immoral offer" by the CDU are increasing. In: NWZonline. August 7, 2017. Retrieved August 7, 2017 .
  27. ↑ Elke Twesten: An "immoral offer" from the CDU. In: Zeit Online. August 6, 2017. Retrieved August 7, 2017 .
  28. ↑ Elke Twesten is now a member of the CDU parliamentary group. In: NDR.de. August 7, 2017. Retrieved August 7, 2017 .
  29. ^ The Lower Saxony state parliament has dissolved ; Article from August 21, 2017 on ndr.de , accessed on October 16, 2017
  30. ↑ Jürgen Theiner: Twesten wanted to go to Bremen. Application as Hauffe successor . In: Weser courier . August 15, 2017, p. 9 ( online at weser-kurier.de [accessed on August 15, 2017]).
personal data
SURNAME Twesten, Elke
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen), MdL
DATE OF BIRTH July 7, 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Scheeßel