Manuel Gava, a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), has withdrawn his candidacy for the Bundestag elections after admitting to regular cocaine use.
Gava made the admission in an interview with the newspaper Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung.
The 33-year-old politician responded to a German media investigation published the day before, explaining that his drug use stemmed from a desire to escape the pressures of Berlin’s political scene and personal issues.
“I messed up. It [cocaine use] was mainly on weekends,” said the MP from Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party.
Gava announced his decision to step down from the Bundestag elections scheduled for February 2025. Officially, he cited health reasons, claiming to suffer from the autoimmune disease lupus, though he did not provide evidence to support this claim.
Since 2021, Gava has represented the Osnabrück constituency in the Bundestag, the hometown of Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. However, dissatisfaction with Gava’s performance had been growing within the SPD since mid-2024. Party members criticized him for frequently missing meetings and rarely appearing in parliament.
