Ekin Deligöz

Ekin Deligöz is a Turkish-German politician of Alliance '90/The Greens who served as a member of the Bundestag for Bavaria from 1998 until her retirement in 2025. In addition, she was a Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth in the coalition government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz from 2021 to 2025.

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Early life

Of ethnic Turkish origin, Deligöz was born in Tokat, Turkey; her family moved to West Germany in 1979. She attended school in Weißenhorn and afterwards partook in Administrative Studies in Konstanz and Vienna earning a degree in 1998. In February 1997, she acquired German citizenship.

Political career

Deligöz joined the Greens as a student member and belonged to the Bavaria chapter of the Greens' youth organization. She entered the Bundestag in 1998, and was re-elected in 2002, 2005 and 2009. Deligöz was re-elected for the fourth time into the federal parliament following the 2013 election. She is one of the eleven politicians of Turkish descent who won a seat in the federal parliament, including seven women.
Between 2002 and 2005, Deligöz served as Chief Whip of the Green Party's parliamentary group. From 2009 until 2013, she was part of the group's leadership around co-chairs Renate Künast and Jürgen Trittin. In this capacity, she was part of a series of round table talks in 2010 and 2011 to tackle a wave of child sexual abuse cases, including numerous allegations of abuse in the Roman Catholic Church; the talks were jointly chaired by ministers Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, Annette Schavan, and Kristina Schröder.
A member of the Budget Committee and as deputy chairwoman of the Audit Committee from 2013 until 2021, Deligöz served as her parliamentary group's rapporteur on the annual budgets of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs ; the Federal Ministry of Education and Research ; the Federal Ministry of Health ; the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth ; the Office of the Federal President ; the Federal Foreign Office ; and the Federal Court of Auditors.
In the negotiations to form a so-called traffic light coalition of the Social Democratic Party, the Green Party and the Free Democratic Party following the 2021 German elections, Deligöz was part of her party's delegation in the working group on children, youth and families, co-chaired by Serpil Midyatli, Katrin Göring-Eckardt and Stephan Thomae.
In September 2024, she announced not seeking re-election for Bundestag in February 2025.

Other activities

Gegen Vergessen – Für Demokratie, Member of the Board

German Committee for UNICEF, Member of the Board
German Child Protection Association, Member
Assembly of Delegates of Ulmer Volksbank e.G., Member
Federal Association for Unaccompanied Refugee Minors, Member
Atlantik-Brücke e.V., Member
Animal welfare association of the town of Weißenhorn, Member

Controversy

When Deligöz voted in a favor of a symbolic resolution in 2016 that labels the 1915 killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman forces "genocide", a description that Turkey strongly rejects, she became one of eleven MPs of Turkish origin who received increased police protection and further security measures for both their professional and private activities. Also, Germany's Federal Foreign Office warned her against travelling to Turkey because her safety could not be guaranteed after statements by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan were suggestive of German lawmakers of Turkish origin having "tainted blood".