Bavaria’s co-SPD state leader Ronja Endres wants to apply for a mandate in the European elections next year. “I have decided to stand as a candidate for the European Parliament in the 2024 EU elections. In May, our incumbent SPD MEP Ismail Ertug announced that he was resigning from his mandate for family reasons, for which I will apply,” said the 36th -year-old on Tuesday of the German Press Agency.
Endres has been a member of the SPD since 2008 and chairwoman of the Bavarian SPD since April 2021, in a dual leadership together with Florian von Brunn, who is running as the top candidate in the state elections. She has also been on the board of the federal SPD since December 2021. Just a few weeks ago, the Bavarian comrades Endres and von Brunn had been confirmed in office at a party conference in Augsburg.
After completing her studies, Endres worked as a political consultant in Berlin and Munich and did voluntary work for the German Federation of Trade Unions and the IG mining, chemicals and energy. Since 2019 she has been chairwoman of the working group for employee issues (AfA) in the Bavarian SPD. “By running for the EU Parliament, I’m fulfilling a political dream,” emphasized Endres, who had toyed with the idea of running for state parliament in the meantime.
She had already done European youth work with trade unions during her studies and was involved, among other things, with the European Trade Union Confederation and the European Trade Union Network of the Ebert Foundation. “My academic training in International Relations with a focus on European industrial policy prepared me perfectly for a role as a member of the EU Parliament. Since the mandate that has become vacant now gives me this opportunity, the path towards candidacy for the EU Parliament is a logical step for me,” Endres said.
Within the EU, she wants to work primarily to strengthen employee rights and an employee-friendly industrial policy.