Silvana Koch- Mehrin: Former FDP politician speaks about sexual harassment

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Silvana Koch-Überin: "I participated through passivity, didn't resist and didn't draw any boundaries,"

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Paul Zinken / dpa

According to her own statements, the former FDP MEP Silvana Koch-Überin has been the victim of numerous sexual assaults, including by party colleagues.

'I was touched.

Simply that way.

There were always hands on my knee.

My chest was touched, and I was given a gentle back massage without being asked," said Koch-mehrin of the magazine "Stern".

“And there was always smut and lewdness—phrases like, 'I'd love to trade with your ball of ice cream.

«

A member of the party once said about her in the evening that "her future lies between her legs."

She herself was sitting within earshot.

Regarding her reaction to such incidents, the 51-year-old said: "I kept quiet and endured it.

At most, rolled your eyes.

Hands pushed away without a word.

Not more."

At the time, she wanted to belong and was afraid of "looking bitchy," Koch- Mehrin continued.

"I didn't fight back, I began to talk myself into questioning myself."

"I participated through passivity, didn't resist and didn't set any boundaries," said Koch-Überin about her behavior at the time.

"It helped me support the system."

The "Stern" spoke to Koch- Mehrin on the occasion of the publication of her book "Now that I'm already not dead".

According to the report, she also describes in it how a MEP wordlessly pushed her hand under her blouse in his room.

She was still an intern at the time.

“I was frozen.

At some point he said, 'What are you doing there?'

She didn't want to name the man today either: "It's not about personal exposure," but about something fundamental.

“I want to tell you that it happened to me.

As happens to many women.«

Ten years MEP

When asked by SPIEGEL, a spokeswoman for the FDP said that the party was offering Koch-mehrin "personal support in dealing with the events she had mentioned." The spokeswoman also referred to guidelines for respectful cooperation, which the FDP decided at the 2019 federal party conference.

These would underline that "abuse, sexual harassment or other aggressive and derogatory behavior will not be tolerated in the FDP." According to the spokeswoman, Koch- Mehrin's descriptions underline "the need for the comprehensive renewal process that the FDP has undergone since 2014."

Koch-Netzin sat for the FDP in the European Parliament from 2004 to 2014.

In 2009 she was her party's top candidate for the European elections.

In 2011, accusations of plagiarism against Koch-Überin came up;

she then resigned as chairwoman of the FDP delegation in the European Parliament and as vice-president of the parliament.

In fact, the University of Heidelberg withdrew her title.

A lawsuit by Koch-Überins, on the other hand, was unsuccessful.

Today, Koch- Mehrin heads the Women Political Leaders network, which she founded with the aim of bringing women into political leadership positions.

asc/ulz/csc/AFP