According to an internal report obtained by the German Bild magazine, MEP Karolin Braunsberger-Reinhold (CDU/EPP) has been accused of sexually harassing two of her employees. What’s more, the parliamentary committee assessing the claims tried to bury the case so as not to hurt the politician’s public image.
According to the 25-page final report (seen only by Bild), the incidents happened last June, when the 36-year-old MEP visited a vineyard in Saxony-Anhalt, along with two of her female staff members, their husbands, and some 30 members of the CDU’s youth organization, the Junge Union (JU).
According to the testimonies, the group attended a “wine tour” on the estate, which began at 10 a.m. By noon, she finished two bottles of wine, and by the afternoon, “she could no longer walk straight,” the report says.
For an hour or so, the MEP then engaged in unsolicited sexual conversation with her employees, explaining to them that she was bisexual, and—plainly oblivious to the discomfort of her staffers—repeatedly asked them to have sex with her, with direct and vulgar language. Later, she even grabbed one of the victim’s breasts.
Afterward, complaints were submitted to the European Parliament, prompting a long inquiry into the incidents. The parliamentary committee tasked to find out what happened held a total of nine hearings, summoning the MEP, the victims, and two witnesses.
However, the report concludes that the committee decided to weigh the “seriousness of the incidents” against the “seriousness of the consequences” for Braunsberger-Reinhold’s life if the “sexual harassment were to become public.” In other words, her (and the EPP’s) reputation is worth more than serving full justice by releasing the report and removing the MEP from her position. European Parliament chief Robert Metsola refused to comment on the issue.
In an ironic twist, Braunsberger-Reinhold is not only a member of the parliamentary committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), which also deals with violence against women (including sexual violence), but it was only last month that she was among the signatories of a report welcoming the EU’s and the CoE’s decision to combat violence against women.
When queried by Bild, the MEP did not deny the allegations but said she had expressed “deep regret” to both employees the morning after the incidents. Braunsberger-Reinhold also told the magazine, that as the committee determined, “in the overall assessment, no sanctions against me as a member of parliament and as a person” were justified.
