Green youth spokeswoman
Sarah-Lee Heinrich wants to stay in public
Sarah-Lee Heinrich pleads for more tolerance in public debate. Photo: Bodo Schackow / dpa-Zentralbild / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Sarah-Lee Heinrich has only been part of the new top duo of the Green Youth for a few days – and, according to her own statements, has already received death threats. She does not want to withdraw.
The newly elected federal spokeswoman for the Green Youth, Sarah-Lee Heinrich, does not want to withdraw from the public after a controversy about earlier statements by her and threats.
“Then the Shitstorm would have reached its destination,” she said in an interview published by “Zeit Online”. “I’m looking forward to representing the Green Youth as federal spokeswoman. Especially in times of a new government formation, the role of the Green Youth and our responsibility are changing. “
After Heinrich was elected co-spokeswoman for the youth organization at the Federal Green Youth Congress on Saturday, statements from her that were several years old sparked a heated online controversy. Among other things, it was about a tweet from her account with which she responded with “Heil” to a swastika. Heinrich said she didn’t remember the tweet but apologized for it. “Zeit Online” she now said: “That was not okay, just like all other discriminatory statements. No matter how ironic I might want to be when I was 14. “
On Monday Heinrich initially withdrew from the public for a few days. “I have received a large number of death threats in the past few days,” she told “Zeit Online”. The “Shitstorm” against them came from right-wing networks that wanted to play groups off against each other. “They say that you have to make a decision: Anyone who is in favor of climate protection is anti-social,” explained Heinrich.
It is about “a climate protection policy that is not carried out on the back of the poor”. Heinrich said that she was deliberately not attacked because of her socio-political positions. «That would have been difficult too. Rights cannot say that they are against social policy. That is why the Internet is specifically looking for ways to discredit us as a party or me as a person. “
About her old statements, which can be understood as threats or fantasies of violence, the now 20-year-old said: “When I wrote the tweets, I was 13 or 14 years old, so I spent a lot of time on the Internet and have I mainly dealt with Battlerap and the YouTuber scene at the time. There was a different tone and a different sense of humor, especially when it comes to discriminatory jokes and sayings. ” She thought that was normal at the time, but that’s not why she deleted the tweets many years ago.
«I am happy to face criticism of my statements and also find them important. But a shit storm makes a critical discussion impossible for all sides, ”explained Heinrich. That’s why those who fueled the shitstorm weren’t interested in it, but rather to intimidate them. “Otherwise they would not have deleted the date of the tweets.”
Heinrich pleaded for more tolerance in the public debate. “I think it’s important to measure people by their actions and the positions they represent in the present,” she said. That must also apply to politicians from other parties. “I think the question is justified as to whether one would react differently to a politician from the other camp, and I am absolutely of the opinion that there should be no double standards. And maybe we should learn to be more lenient again. This applies to all sides. “