born: 1966
land list: North Rhin-Westphalia

Office in Berlin
T: +49 30 / 227 - 71970
F: +49 30 / 227 - 76966
markus.kurth@bundestag.de

Spokesperson on social and disability policy

I gained my first political experiences at school during the 1980s: the peace movement, the squatting scene and the anti-nuclear campaign influenced my activities as school representative. At university my politics became more radical and astute.

The fall of the Berlin Wall, whose social consequences I was able to experience directly in Berlin, and an extended period in New York changed my attitude to parliamentary politics. It became clear to me that the increasing social division in German society, the reduced capacity of the welfare state, unbounded global competition, the consequences of migration and economic structural crises cannot be overcome through extra-parliamentary work alone.

So it was a logical step to join Alliance 90/The Greens. Since 1998 I have organised events and campaigns for the party, and since 2000 I have been active as national congress delegate and spokesman for the Dortmund association. These activities led to my successful candidacy for the Bundestag.

In October 2002 I became the parliamentary group's spokesman on social policy. My brief includes subjects like social security reform, the amalgamation of unemployment benefits and social security, social legislation of people with disabilities, care and attendance regulations and accident insurance.

These subjects also define the key political building sites of the 15th parliamentary term. The financial parameters of the welfare state and the social balance of power changed radically from 2001 to 2003. So it is all the more important to orient social welfare policy to those who are most urgently in need of social support. This also means that subsidies like the first-home buyer allowance are no longer appropriate when elsewhere in the system the income of former recipients of unemployment benefit is being reduced to the level of social security.

Cuts in benefits must always be considered in terms of their long-term effects. Mere cutting (e.g. doing away with debtor counselling or further training for the unemployed) results in higher social costs later on – not to mention the human consequences. We in Alliance 90/The Greens need to assert the principle of sustainable social policy more strongly.

Committees

• Committee on Labour and Social Affairs (sp. + m.)
• Committee on Health  (alt. m.)

Political CV

• Freelance political consultancy, e.g. for GAR-NRW, the North Rhine-Westphalian (NRW) local politics association of Alliance 90/The Greens, main focus: local social politics
• Research associate for the Emscher Region Citizen's Initiative (International Building Exhibition from Below), political focus: regional development in the Ruhr Region, labour market and social policy, housing policy (1998-1999)
• Educational manager at the NRW Heinrich Böll Foundation (2000)
• Member of the Bundestag (since 2002)
• Parliamentary group spokesman on social policy (2002-05)
• Director, Working Group on Green Policy for People with Disabilities (2005-2009)