Berlin Linke MP Vanessa Emde brings contested activist Hannah Bruns to faction meeting

Emde brings contested activist to faction meeting

On Tuesday afternoon, 3 November 2026, Vanessa Emde, a Left Party member of the Berlin House of Representatives, arrived at a faction meeting together with Hannah Bruns, a Palestine activist. Tagesspiegel reported that several sources confirmed the appearance. Bruns sits on the coordinating circle of the state working group on Palestine solidarity in the Berlin Left Party, and an expulsion motion against her has been pending for nearly six weeks. Several party members, whose names were not disclosed, filed that motion. According to Tagesspiegel, Emde described Bruns as part of her election campaign team, and off-the-record voices in the party fear Emde wants to employ Bruns as a staff member. The paper also reported that Bruns was then excluded from the faction session, which is normally open to party members.

Statements at the centre of the dispute

Bruns has repeatedly and sharply criticized Israel's conduct toward Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Tagesspiegel reports that she said the following at a demonstration in Berlin in 2025, and Bruns confirmed the statement when asked.

“The liberation of Palestine does not end when the West Bank is liberated.”

Bruns said the statement can only be understood in its context and that she advocates peaceful coexistence of Israelis and Palestinians in one state. The Left Party backs a two-state solution, in which the occupied West Bank would form part of a future Palestinian state. N-tv notes that Bruns's remark about Tel Aviv calls into question the continued existence of Israel in its current form. According to Tagesspiegel, Emde has also repeatedly questioned Israel's right to exist and taken positions against Germany's Staatsräson. Earlier, Emde signed an antisemitism declaration affirming Israel's right to exist, like all other faction members, but she distanced herself from it in an Instagram video shortly afterwards.

Faction leadership sees no working basis

The faction leadership had already said there was no longer a common basis for work with Emde. The faction board and the faction discussed how to handle her on Tuesday, 27 October, without a concrete result. On Saturday, 31 October, Emde joined a rally at the edge of a Left Party congress directed against the course of the party leadership. Asked on Monday, 2 November, whether Emde would remain a faction member, faction chairman Tobias Schulze told Deutschlandfunk: "We will see." In the same remarks he stressed the faction's aim.

“Our goal is for all members of parliament, just as they signed, to also stand behind the Left's resolutions.”

How the party intends to deal with this contradiction remains open. The timeline below traces the steps since Emde's election.

What happens next

Tagesspiegel reports that the faction board did not file an expulsion motion against Emde on Tuesday and drew no serious consequences. Expelling her from the faction requires the approval of two-thirds of the faction's members. The agreed course is for the state board to act first. It meets regularly on Friday, 6 November, and could ask Emde to give up her mandate for repeated breaches of the mandate holders' agreement. If she refuses, the faction board could file an expulsion motion in the week of 9 November. Emde was elected to the Berlin House of Representatives on 20 September, winning a direct mandate in her Neukölln constituency with 46.2% of the first votes. The Left Party faces criticism over its statements on the Middle East conflict, including accusations that it questions Israel's right to exist.