Guido Reil (born January 19, 1970 in

Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; ) is the List of cities in Germany by population, 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, Emscher River (a tribu ...

) is a German politician who is serving as an

Alternative for Germany Alternative for Germany (, AfD, ) is a Far-right politics in Germany (1945–present), far-right,Far-right: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Right-wing populism, right-wing populist and National conservatism, national-conservative p ...

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

Career

Reil grew up in a modest family and became a

miner A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face (mining), face; cutt ...

after leaving high school. He was a foreman at the Prosper-Haniel mine in

Bottrop Bottrop () is a city in west-central Germany, on the Rhine–Herne Canal, in North Rhine-Westphalia. Located in the Ruhr area, Ruhr industrial area, Bottrop adjoins Essen, Oberhausen, Gladbeck, and Dorsten. The city had been a coal-mining and ...

before training as a

locksmith Locksmithing is the work of creating and bypassing locks. Locksmithing is a traditional trade and in many countries requires completion of an apprenticeship. The level of formal education legally required varies by country, ranging from no formal ...

. Reil was also a union leader. He was a member of

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together w ...

(SPD) for twenty six years and was elected as a councilor for the party in

Essen Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...

in 2009. However, he withdrew his SPD membership in 2016 in protest at the party's immigration policies and disagreements with Essen's SPD chairman Thomas Kutschaty. As a member of the SPD, Reil had attended to organise a demonstration against the construction of a migrant centre in Essen, however, the then Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia Hannelore Kraft intervened and got the event canceled.Frank Stenglein, Wolfgang Kintscher
''Essener Ex-SPD-Ratsherr Guido Reil will der AfD beitreten''
WAZ, 1. Juli 2016. Reil joined the AfD in 2016 and ran 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 ...

in the directly elected constituency of Essen II where he finished third and was not elected.Frank Stenglein
''Kein Mandat – Guido Reil will nun in den AfD-Bundesvorstand''
WAZ, 25. September 2017. In the

2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 23 and 26 May 2019. It was the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) we ...

he was elected as number 2 on the AfD's list behind

Jörg Meuthen Jörg Hubert Meuthen (; born 29 June 1961) is a German economist, academic and politician who was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Germany from 2017 until 2024. He was the frontrunner for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party at ...

. Reil's campaigned focused on the "rescue of the

Ruhr The Ruhr ( ; , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr Area, sometimes Ruhr District, Ruhr Region, or Ruhr Valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 1,160/km2 and a populati ...

area" and preventing the European Union from taking more powers. Following the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, Reil visited Ukraine and declared solidarity with Ukraine, alongside MP Kay Gottschalk, comprising a minority in the otherwise pro-Russian AfD.

References

External links

Living people MEPs for Germany 2019–2024 Alternative for Germany MEPs Year of birth missing (living people) Anti-Romanian sentiment {{Germany-MEP-stub