Irene Mihalic

Irene Mihalic
Chief Whip of the Alliance '90/The Greens in the Bundestag
Incumbent
Assumed office
2021
LeaderBritta Haßelmann
Katharina Dröge
Member of the Bundestag
Incumbent
Assumed office
2013
Preceded byBritta Haßelmann
Personal details
Born (1976-11-17) 17 November 1976 (age 48)
Waldbröl, West Germany
Political partyGreens
Children1
Alma materRuhr University Bochum

Irene Mihalic (born 17 November 1976) is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens from Gelsenkirchen.[1] A former police officer, Mihailic has been a member of the Bundestag since 2013.

Early life and education

Mihalic was born in Waldbröl, the youngest of three siblings. Her parents are from Croatia;[2][3] they came to Germany in the 1960s.

Mihalic trained as a police officer and studied at the Fachhochschule für öffentliche Verwaltung Nordrhein-Westfalen (University of Applied Sciences for Public Administration North Rhine-Westphalia), graduating as a Diplom-Verwaltungswirt (FH). She studied criminology and police science at the Ruhr University Bochum, graduating with an M.A. degree in 2016. In 2018, she received her doctorate from the Law Faculty of the Ruhr-University Bochum.[4] Her dissertation was published under the title Police Operations, Crime and Space – A Criminal Geographical Analysis Based on Police Operations Data and Social Structure Data of the City of Gelsenkirchen.

Early career

From 1993 Mihalic worked as a police officer, from 2007 she worked for the Cologne Police Headquarters. At the end of the 2000s, she acted, together with her colleague Dennis Melerski, in the German reality TV series Achtung Kontrolle! – Einsatz für die Ordnungshüter.[5]

Political career

Mihalic in 2012

Career in local politics

Mihalic has been a member of Alliance 90/The Greens since 2006. She was a member of Gelsenkirchen City Council from 2009 until the end of 2013. Since 2010, she has been a member of the board of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen Nordrhein-Westfalen.

Member of the German Parliament, 2013–present

In the 2013 federal elections, Mihalic ran in the Gelsenkirchen constituency and in 7th place on the North Rhine-Westphalia state list of Alliance 90/The Greens. She succeeded in entering the Bundestag via the state list. In the 2017 Bundestag elections, Mihalic again entered the Bundestag, this time in 5th place on the NRW Alliance 90/The Greens state list.

Mihalic has been a member of the Committee on Internal Affairs since 2013 and her parliamentary group’s spokeswoman for internal affairs since 2016.[6][7] Initially, she acted as spokeswoman for internal security in the Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary group and, until 2017, as chairwoman of the Committee on Internal Affairs. She is also part of the Committee for the Scrutiny of Acoustic Surveillance of the Private Home. Since 2022, she has been a member of the Parliamentary Oversight Panel (PKGr), which provides parliamentary oversight of Germany’s intelligence services BND, BfV and MAD.[8]

From 2018, Mihalic chaired the investigative committee on the attack at Breitscheidplatz in Berlin.[9] Previously, she was chairwoman of the NSU investigative committee of the Bundestag (November 2015 to June 2017) and chairwoman of the investigative committee on the Edathy affair (July 2014 to December 2015).[10][11][12]

Mihalic is also an alternate member of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Consumer Protection. In addition to her committee assignments, she has been serving as deputy chairwoman of the Parliamentary Friendship Group for Relations with the Northern Adriatic States.

In the negotiations to form a so-called traffic light coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Green Party and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) following the 2021 German elections, Mihalic was part of her party's delegation in the working group on homeland security, civil rights and consumer protection, co-chaired by Christine Lambrecht, Konstantin von Notz and Wolfgang Kubicki.[13]

In the negotiations to form a coalition government under the leadership of Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia Hendrik Wüst following the 2022 state elections, Mihalic was part of her party’s delegation.[14]

Political positions

As a domestic policy spokeswoman and police officer, Mihalic's parliamentary mandate focuses on right-wing extremism[15] (e.g. "Reichsbürger"[16]), Islamism,[17] weapons law,[18] the establishment of security authorities in Germany and Europe,[19] civil defense and emergency management[20] and civil service law.[21] She is also a spokesperson for LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) Deutschland e. V., which promotes the legalization of drugs.[22]

Other activities

Personal life

Mihalic is married to Melerski.[24] She has been the mother of a son since 2015. Mihalic has no religion.

References

  1. ^ Bundestagsfraktion Bündnis 90/Die Grünen. "Irene Mihalic MdB – Bundestagsfraktion Bündnis 90/Die Grünen". Retrieved 23 March 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ "Kroatisches Referendum: Verbot der Homo-Ehe wäre diskriminierend". Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  3. ^ "Polizistin aus dem Pott: Irene Mihalic". Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  4. ^ Dr. Irene Mihalic, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen. Bundestag, accessed 14 September 2018.
  5. ^ "Achtung Kontrolle projekte". www.hans-otto-film.de. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
  6. ^ Neubesetzung von SprecherInnen-Posten – Bundestagsfraktion Bündnis 90/Die Grünen. 26 April 2016. Archived from the original on 4 January 2017. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  7. ^ "Irene Mihalic als innenpolitische Sprecherin der Grünen Bundestagsfraktion wiedergewählt". Retrieved 23 March 2018.
  8. ^ Bundestag setzt Parlamentarisches Kontrollgremium ein Bundestag, 24 March 2022.
  9. ^ "Untersuchungsausschuss zum Breitscheidplatz-Anschlag kommt". Deutscher Bundestag. 1 March 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  10. ^ "Rede zum neuen NSU-Untersuchungsausschuss | Irene Mihalic". Irene-mihalic.de. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
  11. ^ Florian Gathmann und Veit Medick, Kinderporno-Affäre: Darum geht es im Edathy-Untersuchungsausschuss, Spiegel Online, 2 July 2014
  12. ^ "Rede zum Bericht des BKA-Untersuchungsausschusses (Edathy) | Irene Mihalic". Irene-mihalic.de. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
  13. ^ Britt-Marie Lakämper (21 October 2021), SPD, Grüne, FDP: Diese Politiker verhandeln die Ampel-Koalition Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung.
  14. ^ Martin Teigeler (23 May 2022), Nach NRW-Wahl: Sondierungen beginnen am Dienstag Westdeutscher Rundfunk.
  15. ^ "Bedenkliche Größenordnung": 200 rechtsextreme Bundeswehrsoldaten seit 2008. 23 October 2017. {{cite book}}: |newspaper= ignored (help)
  16. ^ Sicherheitsrisiko: Fast 13.000 Reichsbürger – nur fünf als gefährlich eingestuft. 22 September 2017.
  17. ^ Nino Seidel (8 June 2017). "Islamisten trotz Haftbefehl auf freiem Fuß". NDR. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
  18. ^ 24 500 legale Waffen gelten als gestohlen als abhanden gekommen. 21 March 2018.
  19. ^ Manuel Schumann (30 June 2017). ""Wir Grüne haben in der Sicherheitspolitik eine Menge zu verlieren"". Telepolis. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
  20. ^ Irene Mihalic. "Bundestagsrede zur Stärkung des Schutzes von Vollstreckungsbeamten und Rettungskräften". Retrieved 23 March 2018.
  21. ^ Irene Mihalic. "Bundestagsrede zum Polizeibeauftragtengesetz". Retrieved 23 March 2018.
  22. ^ LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) Deutschland e.V. "Vorstand, Mitglieder: Sprecher*innen, Mitglieder: Unterstützer*innen" (in German). Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  23. ^ Members Archived 23 September 2020 at the Wayback Machine Institut Solidarische Moderne (ISM).
  24. ^ Friedhelm Pothoff (15 September 2015). "Irene Mihalic ist ein Gesicht der Grünen". Funke Mediengruppe. Archived from the original on 4 January 2017. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
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