Editing Gabi Zimmer (section)

== Political career ==
She joined the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany]] (SED), the ruling party of the [[German Democratic Republic]] (East Germany), in 1981.<ref name="EUMP1">{{cite web|url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/28248/GABRIELE_ZIMMER_home.html |title=Your MEPs – Gabi Zimmer |access-date=4 July 2015 |work=EU MEP information |publisher=[[European Union]] }}</ref> After its transformation into the Party of Democratic Socialism in 1990, she became the party's leader in the new state of [[Thuringia]], a position she held until 1998. She was a member of the [[Landtag of Thuringia]] from 1990 until 2004.

Zimmer became federal deputy leader of PDS in 1996. She was elected federal leader in 2000 after the resignation of [[Lothar Bisky]]. The party suffered a major defeat in the [[2002 German federal election|2002 federal election]], failing to pass the 5% [[electoral threshold]] and returning only two representatives. Zimmer was re-elected as leader at the first party congress after the election, but after internal party disputes, announced she would step down and not seek re-election at an extraordinary party congress in 2003. She left the leadership in May of that year.

Zimmer remained active in the party, and was elected to the European Parliament in [[2004 European Parliament election|2004]]. In 2007, the PDS merged into [[The Left (Germany)|The Left]]. Zimmer was re-elected as an MEP representing The Left in 2009 and 2014. In 2012, she became the chairwoman of the GUE/NGL group in the European Parliament. She did not seek re-election in the [[2019 European Parliament election]].