Green MEP faces re-selection battle amid bullying claims

German MEP Manuela Ripa is facing a campaign from some of her own staff to block her run for reelection to the European Parliament in June 2024, whilst others have come out in support of her.

In a letter, sent on July 6 and obtained by POLITICO, a group of nine staffers and three interns alleged that Ripa had neglected her parliamentary duties, instructed them do personal tasks for her, and bullied them at work.

The letter accused Ripa of “harsh words, yelling, general lack of respect/courtesy, compulsive and controlling behavior and sometimes personal insults.”

Ripa told POLITICO she and her office had been “shocked” by the anonymous allegations. She said it was difficult to respond to an anonymous letter “with false defamatory accusations. Out of the anonymity anything can be stated without the need to be proven.”

“I take this anonymous accusation very seriously as you can imagine,” the MEP said. She said no formal complaint had been made against her to the European Parliament’s human resources service, and added that she had taken the Parliament’s “voluntary anti-harassment training.”

On September 22, three of Ripa’s current staffers sent another letter to party officials supporting her and to distance themselves from the first letter. In their letter, also seen by POLITICO, these three staffers said they “have at no time experienced direct harassment, abuse of power or the like from Manuela Ripa.” They emphasized that Ripa “has always trusted us and given us flexibility in our work” and that they would like to continue working with her in the future.

Ripa did not reply to specific questions from POLITICO about the second letter.

The MEP is the only European lawmaker for the small German ecologist party called Ecological Democratic Party. She is a member of the Parliament’s industry committee. Ripa started working as an MEP in July 2020, when she replaced Klaus Buchner, who had been an MEP since 2014.

The accusations of bullying by Ripa follow POLITICO’s previous reporting on psychological harassment at the European Parliament. There have already been two confirmed cases of harassment by European lawmakers so far this year. The European Parliament is currently working on reforming its anti-harassment procedures.

None of the Ripa staffers has so far launched a formal complaint against her within the European Parliament. Some say they did not know such a procedure existed. Others claim to have feared consequences for their future professional lives. By writing the letter, the staffers, whose names are all known to POLITICO except for one, say they wanted to avoid Ripa running for re-election and treating future staff in the same way she has treated them.

One former assistant, Alexandra Guedes Lobao, wrote in her resignation letter that she was quitting because she no longer wanted to work in “a highly toxic work environment.” After this, the services of the European Parliament got in touch with her to inquire whether she would want to launch a formal complaint. However, Guedes Lobao, like others, feared professional consequences at the time, she told POLITICO.

Since she joined the European Parliament in 2020, Ripa has had at least eleven parliamentary staffers and eight local assistants, according to transparency website ParlTrack. This doesn’t include a number of interns, who are not listed on the website but whose names were confirmed to POLITICO. A European lawmaker normally has three parliamentary staffers at one time.

POLITICO spoke to four of the staffers who signed the letter. They spoke on condition of anonymity as they feared going public could hurt their careers. Some of the staffers showed POLITICO emails and WhatsApp messages from Ripa to back up the content of their letter. These messages showed her making demands during weekends and beyond normal office hours. Several of the staffers talked about a “toxic work environment” and “screaming and shouting” at the workplace.

In the letter, the staffers acknowledge that working in the European Parliament can lead to long hours. In Ripa’s case however, they say “these deviations do not arise because of political events or the parliamentary agenda but are always due to structural inefficiencies and professional misconduct caused by poor management.” One example of this was Ripa assigning the same task to the entire team at the same time, without telling the other members of her office.

One former parliamentary assistant to Ripa who did not sign the letter said that despite being “a super strong believer in the EU”, the MEP’s behaviour “really tested my beliefs in this system.”

“It was very difficult for me, this combination of constant stress and the atmosphere in the office, the things I was supposed to do that I felt weren’t tasks for APAs [parliamentary assistants],” the former assistant said.

In a response to POLITICO, Ripa dismissed allegations contained in the anonymous first letter as false. Ripa’s party did not want to comment to protect all those concerned.

Charlotte Schmid, the federal chair of the party, said they “continue to to stand up for the rights of the people as enshrined in the German Constitution with full transparency and determination” and they will deal with “this matter in precisely the same manner.”

In the second, supportive letter, the three staffers also pointed out that, as far as they know, there has not been a formal anti-harassment complaint made against Ripa in the European Parliament.