Arif Taşdelen
Allegations from young comrades: Bavarian SPD general secretary is no longer allowed to go to Juso meetings
Bavaria’s SPD general secretary Arif Taşdelen is confronted with allegations from young female SPD members (archive photo)
© Tobias Hase
Arif Taşdelen is Secretary General of the SPD in Bavaria, but he doesn’t have to be seen with the Jusos in his own state. According to the media, he is an undesirable person there.
According to consistent media reports, the Jusos Bayern have decided to take an extraordinary step: Arif Taşdelen, General Secretary of the SPD Bavaria, is no longer allowed to take part in party youth events. Kilian Maier, chairman of Jusos Bayern, confirmed this to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (SZ). At a request from star neither he nor Taşdelen reacted at first.
The reason for the decision is said to be that female Juso members complained about Taşdelen’s inappropriate behavior towards them. A specific case called the “Bavarian Radio” (BR): So shall Taşdelen on the Gillamoos festival in Abensberg asked for the cell phone number of a young candidate for the state parliament. According to SPD co-chair Ronja Endres, Tasdelen was concerned with ensuring the flow of information during the election campaign, reports BR. According to Endres, she did not find any further personal interest. The addressee herself apparently perceived it differently.
Inappropriate communication from Taşdelen?
According to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, Taşdelen’s lawyer wrote, among other things, that it was about two cases in which his “communication (…) was felt to be inappropriate”. Juso boss Maier, on the other hand, speaks of more than two cases in the SZ.
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According to his lawyer, Taşdelen was not heard before the Juso decision and was “very upset” when he found out about it, writes the “SZ”. But he is now doing “awareness coaching” in order to formulate more carefully in the future.
SPD is looking for the right level of sensitivity
According to the newspaper, the SPD in Bavaria has been controversially discussing complaints about Taşdelen for some time, although none of the previously known allegations against the SPD general secretary are likely to be criminally relevant. Older, male SPD members in particular often consider the allegations to be exaggerated. Some are said to even speak of “hypersensitivity” among some SPD women. The Jusos, on the other hand, point to the free economy and its greater sensitivity to this topic.
Sources:“Sueddeutsche.de”, “br.de”.