After suffering a heart attack in July, Left Party parliamentary group leader Sören Pellmann is calling for a more open approach to stress and strain in politics. "Many MPs think it doesn't affect them. Illness is a taboo in politics as it is in society, whether psychological or organic, dependency even more so," Pellmann told Die Welt.
He himself had long considered whether to speak publicly about his heart attack. "There were other opinions in the office: You show weakness with it, you don't appear resilient, the political opponent could take advantage of that," said the member of the Bundestag from Leipzig. However, he had mainly received encouragement and wishes for recovery.
According to Pellmann himself, the 48-year-old suffered his heart attack in July after meetings with his parliamentary group in North Rhine-Westphalia. "In the evening at the hotel, I noticed pressure in my chest area and my heart rate went up dramatically. My smartwatch showed a pulse of 159. Less than an hour after arriving at the hospital, I was in intensive care and had already undergone surgery." Since then, he has done more sport, eaten more healthily and lost 22 kilograms in weight as a result. The left-wing parliamentary group leader returned to politics in October.
Stress and alcohol
In addition to obesity and high blood pressure, Pellmann also cites stress as one of the risk factors to which he is exposed as a member of the Bundestag. "In parliamentary weeks, you easily have ten, eleven, twelve appointments a day, no breaks, no time off. You rush from meeting to meeting to speak in parliament. Social media has increased the feeling of having to be constantly available."
As a politician, you are also constantly surrounded by alcohol. "You can go from reception to reception during session weeks and drink wine or beer," says Pellmann. He therefore believes that there is a high number of unreported cases of MPs with addictions.
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