Greens parliamentary group leader in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania resigns over harassment allegations

The chairwoman of the Green Party parliamentary group in the state parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Constanze Oehlrich, is said to have verbally sexually harassed an employee for years. "The most serious accusation is that the party did not take it seriously enough," says WELT investigative reporter Dirk Banse.

Shortly before the state election in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the Green Party parliamentary group has lost its chairwoman. Constanze Oehlrich resigned following complaints from an employee. Her resignation is "expressly not a confirmation" of the allegations.

Resignation and Background

Around a month before the state election, Constanze Oehlrich stepped down as chairwoman of the Green Party parliamentary group in Schwerin. She had been elected to the position in April 2024.

Oehlrich faced a complaint from an employee under the General Equal Treatment Act last year. According to media reports at the time, which correspond with dpa information, the complaint concerned allegations of abuse of power. A law firm examined the case. The lawyers could neither establish a violation of the law nor any faulty leadership behavior, as the parliamentary group announced last year. Details were not disclosed.

Oehlrich's Statement

"The allegations raised against me have already been examined in an independent procedure and dismissed as unfounded. A repeated public presentation of already refuted allegations does not create any new facts, but leads to ongoing personal strain," Oehlrich was quoted in a statement from the parliamentary group.

She emphasized that she maintains her previous account and assessment of the situation. "This step is expressly not a confirmation of the allegations raised against me."

Constanze Oehlrich Source: Jens Büttner/dpa/picture alliance

Details of the Allegations

As WELT reported last week, Oehlrich is said to have fallen in love with a younger employee and verbally sexually harassed him for years. For example, she is said to have expressed displeasure that her employee — as a specialist counseling center writes — "wears too little form-fitting clothing (that 'sits tighter on the bottom')." The counseling center assessed "this unwanted suggestive behavior towards an employee" as overstepping boundaries.

Oehlrich's Response

Oehlrich told WELT that the allegations in this form were not true: "Individual actual events or formulations are taken out of context, reproduced in abbreviated form, and subsequently provided with assessments that I expressly do not share. This creates an overall picture that, in my view, does not do justice to the actual course of events."

She stated that the examples cited neither concerned sexual advances nor were they sexually motivated. The comment about clothing referred exclusively to the external appearance at official appointments and the requirements for appropriate professional conduct. She could not rule out that her statements were understood differently "than they were intended. If that was the case, I regret it. However, I firmly reject the resulting allegation of verbal sexual harassment."

Political Impact

Oehlrich was originally nominated as the Green Party's top candidate for the state election on September 20. After internal party disputes, the state list was re-elected, and Claudia Müller took over the top candidacy.

dpa/nw