Overview
- Party members backed Sunčica Klaas over Stefan Gelbhaar by 179 votes to 83, with five abstentions, prompting Gelbhaar to forgo the final ballot.
- The seat is a long-held Green stronghold in Pankow, making Klaas the frontrunner to enter the Berlin state parliament in 2026.
- RBB previously retracted key reporting and apologized after being misled on serious accusations, even as several women continued to describe Gelbhaar’s behavior as boundary-crossing rather than criminal.
- A federal party review found serious mishandling that cut short Gelbhaar’s Bundestag career while noting multiple complaints within the Berlin branch.
- Hamburg courts barred specific statements and media passages but allowed broader suspicion reporting, and lawmaker Klara Schedlich has appealed restrictions on parts of her testimony.