Guido Thorsten Reil (born January 19, 1970 in Gelsenkirchen) is a German politician who is serving as an Alternative for Germany Member of the European Parliament.
Career Reil grew up in a modest family and became a miner after leaving high school. He was a foreman at the Prosper-Haniel mine in Bottrop before training as a locksmith. Reil was also a union leader. He was a member of Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) for twenty six years and was elected as a councilor for the party in Essen in 2009. However, he withdrew his SPD membership in 2016 in protest at the party's immigration policies and disagreements with Essen's SPD chairman Thomas Kutschaty. As a member of the SPD, Reil had attended to organise a demonstration against the construction of a migrant centre in Essen, however, the then Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia Hannelore Kraft intervened and got the event canceled.Frank Stenglein, Wolfgang Kintscher: Essener Ex-SPD-Ratsherr Guido Reil will der AfD beitreten, WAZ, 1. Juli 2016.
Reil joined the AfD in 2016 and ran in the 2017 German federal election in the directly elected constituency of Essen II where he finished third and was not elected.Frank Stenglein: Kein Mandat – Guido Reil will nun in den AfD-Bundesvorstand, WAZ, 25. September 2017.Bundestagswahl – So hat der Wahlkreis 119 Essen II gewählt, WAZ, 25. September 2017. In the 2019 European Parliament election he was elected as number 2 on the AfD's list behind Jörg Meuthen. Reil's campaigned focused on the "rescue of the Ruhr area" and preventing the European Union from taking more powers.Daniel Sobolewski: „Brüssel ist ein Irrenhaus!“ Guido Reil erklärt Kandidatur für das Europa-Parlament – und plant eine eigene „Sendung mit der Maus“ , DerWesten, 6. Oktober 2018.W. Kintscher: AfD-Frontmann Guido Reil kandidiert fürs Europa-Parlament, Neue Ruhr Zeitung, 23. September 2018.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Reil visited Ukraine and declared solidarity with Ukraine, alongside MP Kay Gottschalk, comprising a minority in the otherwise pro-Russian AfD.
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