In the spring, Green leader Nouripour contracted Corona. He has been struggling with the consequences of the infection for months. At that time he also thought about resigning, he says today.
Green leader Omid Nouripour has for the first time commented in detail on the consequences of his Covid disease. “I was shown my own transience,” Nouripour told the “Tagesspiegel”. In the spring, the 47-year-old was infected with the virus. For days he did not get out of bed while trying to run the business as party chairman. “I was constantly exhausted. It pushed me physically beyond my limits,” said Nouripour.
The exhaustion subsided after a few weeks, but he still struggled with Long Covid in the form of regular dizzy spells for months: “I was sitting in political talks and everything suddenly turned, sometimes for a minute,” Nouripour told the “Tagesspiegel”. In the first two months, his condition did not improve and he wondered “if it would ever stop,” Nouripour said.
When asked whether he had also considered resigning, he said: “I was increasingly concerned with the question of whether I could do justice to what my party needs from its leader.” And further: “If you have the feeling that you can’t go to the limit, but what you have to do, you question yourself.”
According to the Greens leader, the symptoms only subsided during the political summer break. His neurologist urged him to get enough sleep: “In the summer I slept six to seven hours – this made the dizziness disappear bit by bit until it finally stopped”. He has now fully recovered. His experience humbles him. “I think you’re mature, as a person and as a politician, when you realize that you’re replaceable,” Nouripour said.
In general, dealing with illnesses and weaknesses in top politics is difficult. Politicians therefore tried to hide illnesses, Nouripour reported to the “Tagesspiegel”. One of his colleagues recently had an orthopedic operation. “He told me about his pain in meetings or on TV shows. It hurts like hell – but you can’t show it. Because the other side could take advantage of the weakness or out there it’s spread that you’re not able to do your job to do.” The workload for MPs is high. “You can’t just skip it. But there are also many politicians who are afraid that the train will leave without them, and that’s true. The train doesn’t wait,” says Nouripour.
