Martin Schirdewan

Martin Schirdewan (born 12 July 1975, East Berlin) is a German journalist, politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) representing Germany since 8 November 2017, following the resignation of Fabio De Masi. He is a member of The Left (German: Die Linke), and is co-chair of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left parliamentary grouping (GUE/NGL). As a group co-chair, he is a member of the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament, the body responsible for the administration of the parliament.

From 1998 to 2003 he studied at the Free University of Berlin, before achieving a doctorate in political science in 2007.

Between 2001 and 2008 Schirdewan was editor of the magazine Utopie kreativ ('Creative utopia'), published by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. From 2006 until 2015, he was a researcher for a Bundestag member from The Left and was senior editor of Sacco & Vanzetti, the youth magazine of socialist daily newspaper Neues Deutschland.From 2015 until his appointment to the European Parliament, he was head of the Brussels office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and of its Athens "liaison office", as well as establishing a liaison office in Madrid. In 2012–2015 and again in 2018, Schirdewan served on the party executive of The Left.

Since being appointed to the European Parliament, Schirdewan has served as a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) and as a substitute for the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO).

He is a grandson of communist activist and East German politician Karl Schirdewan; Martin grew up discussing politics with his grandfather at mealtimes.