Martin Schirdewan (born 12 July 1975) is a German journalist and politician who served as of The Left from June 2022 to October 2024. He has sat as a

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 ...

(MEP) since 2017, and was elected co-chair of The Left in the European Parliament (GUE/NGL) parliamentary group in 2019.

Political career

Schirdewan was born in

East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

. From 1998 to 2003, he studied at the Free University of Berlin, before achieving a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

in 2007. Between 2001 and 2008, Schirdewan was editor of the magazine (''Creative Utopia''), published by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. From 2006 until 2015, he was a researcher for a member from The Left and was senior editor of , the youth magazine of socialist daily newspaper . From 2015 until his appointment to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

, he was head of the Brussels office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and of its Athens "liaison office", as well as establishing a liaison office in Madrid. From 2012 to 2015 and again in 2018, Schirdewan served on the party executive of The Left. Since being appointed to the European Parliament, Schirdewan has served as a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON), and as a substitute for the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO). Schirdewan was one of The Left's top candidates in the 2019 European Parliament election in Germany alongside Özlem Demirel. The party won 5.5% of votes and five seats, making it the joint second largest party in the GUE/NGL group by seat count, behind

Syriza The Coalition of the Radical Left – Progressive Alliance (), best known by the syllabic abbreviation SYRIZA ( ; ; a pun on the Greek adverb , meaning "from the roots" or "radically"), is a Centre-left politics, centre-left to Left-wing politi ...

and tied with La France Insoumise. In the new Parliament, Schirdewan was elected co-chair of the GUE/NGL faction alongside French MEP Manon Aubry. At a federal Left congress in June 2022, Schirdewan was elected co-leader of the party with alongside incumbent Janine Wissler. He was challenged by several candidates, including Sören Pellmann, who won 176 votes (31.6%). Within the party, he is considered a reformer close in outlook to moderates such as Dietmar Bartsch.

Political positions

On 2 March 2022, Schirdewan was one of 13 MEPs who voted against a motion condemning 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 ...

. He stated that, though he condemned the invasion as a blatant breach of international law, he opposed arms shipments to Ukraine on the grounds that it violated EU directives on exports to war and crisis zones. On 15 September 2022, he was first one of 28 MEPs who voted abstain, then one of 19 MEPs who voted against in a resolution condemning President

Daniel Ortega José Daniel Ortega Saavedra (; ; born 11 November 1945) is a Nicaraguan politician and dictator who has been the president of Nicaragua, co-president of Nicaragua since 18 February 2025, alongside his wife Rosario Murillo. He was the 54th an ...

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

for human rights violations, in particular the arrest of Bishop Rolando Álvarez.

Personal life

Schirdewan is a grandson of East German politician Karl Schirdewan and his wife Gisela.

References

External links

*
Profile
on the

website {{DEFAULTSORT:Schirdewan, Martin 1975 births Living people People from East Berlin Politicians from Berlin Journalists from Berlin Die Linke MEPs Leaders of political parties in Germany German male journalists German political journalists German newspaper editors 21st-century German journalists Luxemburgists MEPs for Germany 2014–2019 MEPs for Germany 2019–2024 MEPs for Germany 2024–2029