Ateş Gürpınar (born 25 September 1984) is a German politician of The Left who is serving as member of the Bundestag since 2021 and one of six deputy leaders of his party since 2018. He is also co-chairman of the Bavarian branch of The Left since 2016.

Ateş Gürpınar
Gürpınar in 2018
Member of the Bundestag
Assumed office
26 October 2021
ConstituencyBavaria
Deputy Leader of The Left
Assumed office
27 February 2021
Personal details
Born
Ateş Gürpınar

(1984-09-25) 25 September 1984 (age 40)
Darmstadt, Hesse, West Germany
Political partyThe Left
Alma materUniversity of Erlangen–Nuremberg

Life and career

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Gürpınar was born to a Turkish father and a German mother.[1] He attended the Edith-Stein-Schule in Darmstadt and earned his Abitur in 2003. He studied at the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg from 2004 to 2011 and graduated with a magister degree in media science and a master's in ethics of text cultures. He also studied modern German literary history and philosophy but did not earn a degree. He teaches media studies and economics at the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences.[2]

Political career

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Gürpınar joined The Left in 2010. He became politically engaged due to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, as well as the Europe-wide student protests in which he participated in 2009.[3] He became press spokesman for the Bavarian party branch in 2012, and was state managing director from 2014 to 2016. In 2016, he was elected co-leader of the state party.[2] In the 2017 German federal election, he stood in Munich North constituency and won 6.0% of the vote. He was not elected. Along with his counterpart Eva Bulling-Schröter, he was lead candidate for The Left in the 2018 Bavarian state election, but the party failed to win any seats.[4]

In February 2021, Gürpınar was elected one of six federal deputy leaders of The Left.[2] At a party congress, he was nominated with 52% of votes[5] and confirmed with 77%.[6]

In the 2021 German federal election, Gürpınar was elected to the Bundestag in fourth place on the state list.[7] He also ran in the Rosenheim constituency, winning 2.2% of votes.[8]

References

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  1. ^ "Bavarian Landtag elections: What politicians with a migration background are fighting for". Deutschlandfunk (in German). 11 October 2018.
  2. ^ a b c "Ates Gürpinar". Bundestag (in German). Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  3. ^ "The Left Bavaria fights for "more for the majority"". The Left Bavaria (in German). 29 April 2018.
  4. ^ "Election of the party executive at the Seventh Party Congress". The Left (in German). 27 February 2021.
  5. ^ "Election of the party executive at the Seventh Party Congress". The Left (in German). 27 February 2021.
  6. ^ "Elected candidates by Land lists in Bayern". Federal Returning Officer. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  7. ^ "Results for Rosenheim". Federal Returning Officer.
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