“No,” laughs Bela Bach, she is no longer angry with the SPD: “I made my peace with the party.” A little embarrassed, the 31-year-old former member of the Bundestag stirs her teacup, and then it shoots out of her: “For me, all of this can now be viewed from the outside like a piece.” The “play” is the veritable decline, she calls it “also mobbing”, a young politician from Planegg who, with luck and chance, made it to the German Bundestag as a successor and who, after a year and a half, is giving Berlin air the full force of party-political intrigues got feel. This ultimately led to a hopeful political talent finding himself on the ground for the first time, badly battered and just as badly disappointed by the political events of the day.
At least that’s how she sees it. “I no longer have a suitcase in Berlin,” sums up Bach, who, at least in Planegg, was once considered a great hope and political talent. Bach’s story about her excursion into the highest political realms is quickly told: As a successor and youngest woman, the beginning lawyer came to the Bundestag in February 2020 and thus held three offices for the constituency of Munich-Land: as district councilor, councilor in Planegg and also as a member of the Bundestag. Bach says she quickly settled into day-to-day political affairs, received a lot of support from other parties, and set up her own parliamentary office in Martinsried. But she didn’t have a lot of time to establish herself and make a name for herself.
Because the approaching Bundestag elections and the list positions required in advance by the Bavarian SPD put a quick end to the beginning career. The not unfounded hope of securing a place in the Bundestag with a good nomination failed. First, Bach lost a vote for the third women’s place on the Upper Bavarian list, at the nomination party congress of the Bayern-SPD she then also lost a vote for the 18th place. After a short hesitation, Bach finally withdrew her candidacy for a direct mandate in the constituency of Munich-Land Bundestag elections on September 26th and even announced their complete withdrawal from politics.
The staunch Social Democrat – who joined the party at the age of 17 – has now largely modified this intention. Although she feels “after a phase of anger” now “very liberated”, says Bach in an interview with the SZ, and besides, she owes a lot to her base. In analyzing its decline, Bach differentiates very precisely between the Federal SPD and the Bavarian comrades. She describes them, not without sarcasm and bitterness, as a “functionaries’ association with a dynamic of its own”. After her defeat she received “a lot of encouragement” from other parliamentary groups and she recalls the very similar fate of another thoroughbred politician from the Munich district: Toni Hofreiter from the Greens, who was actually appointed minister and whose political talent is now somehow hanging in the air. Almost defiantly, Bach says: “Basically, politics was never one hundred percent my identity.” At the same time, however, she emphasizes that she wants to remain “always political”. The fact that “my own party has put stings in my way wherever possible” has not taken them away from social democracy either. Bach emphasizes that “I no longer want a party office”.
The Planegger now wants to advance her doctorate
In the next few months, the young woman from Planegger would first like to advance her doctorate. And then, very thoughtful: “For the first time I have come to a point where I ask myself: What do I want in my life?” She can imagine pursuing a political career outside of the party – she is particularly interested in “foreign policy and international law”. But Bela Bach does not consider a career “in industry or business” to be ruled out either. Why? “Because the structures there are much leaner and you can implement a lot.”
But what she knows for sure is that she wants to deepen her love for the mountains – by traveling, for example to the Himalayas. She is a passionate mountaineer and ski tourer.
It is not the case that Bach, who in any case wants to remain part of local politics in Planegg and the district for the time being, is stooped out of grief about her time in Berlin. But on the contrary. The young politician appears fresh and serene when she says: “I am grateful for the time in Berlin and the experiences I made there. I made friends and made friends across the political groups.” That strengthens her mentally and gives her strength for the future: “What I have experienced seems to me symptomatic of what is happening in politics – that is, to take as little consideration as possible. But I want to play fair.”