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Logo of the left (archive photo)
Photo: IMAGO/Christian Spicker
The #MeToo affair continues to cause unrest within the Left Party, especially in the Rhineland-Palatinate state association.
Members of the Rhein-Hunsrück district association have now filed criminal charges against comrades in the federal party, the Rhineland-Palatinate state association and its ex-chairwoman Melanie Wery-Sims.
The accusation: You tried to cover up a case of sexism in your own ranks.
According to the ad, an alleged victim of sexism may have been influenced by party officials to clarify the incident internally – without involving the investigative authorities.
It could have been a matter of “frustration of the law”.
The Koblenz public prosecutor's office confirmed receipt of the complaint;
it will be checked whether there is an initial suspicion.
Wery-Sims, who herself became a victim of internal party sexism and therefore left the left, rejected the allegations – just like the state association.
The district chairman Roger Mallmenn, who is said to have described Wery-Sims as a "wanting template", is one of the people who reported it.
The current case was "treated and solved in close consultation with the person concerned," says the left in Rhineland-Pflaz.
Nothing is known about the ad.
The federal left did not comment on the specific incident;
they knew nothing of the specific ad.
Its authors, however, criticize sharply: "The 'internal rules' with which the party deals with cases of sexism remind us of how the Catholic Church deals with cases of abuse," it says in their ad.
The left in Rhineland-Palatinate is in an existential crisis.
After the departure of Wery-Sims, the state board has now filed a party exclusion application against Mallmenn.
In turn, he complained that Wery-Sims had called several comrades “assholes”.