| Renate Künast | |
|---|---|
| Renate Künast | |
| Member of the Bundestag of Germany | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 2002 |
|
| Federal Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection | |
| In office 12 January 2001 – 4 October 2005 |
|
| Preceded by | Karl-Heinz Funke |
| Succeeded by | Jürgen Trittin (acting) Horst Seehofer |
| Member of the Berlin House of Deputies | |
| In office 1989–2000 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born | December 15, 1955 Recklinghausen, Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Political party | Alliance '90/The Greens |
| Residence | Berlin, Germany |
| Alma mater | Fachhochschule Düsseldorf |
| Occupation | attorney |
Renate Künast (born December 15, 1955) is a German politician who is chairwoman of the Alliance '90/The Greens Bundestag parliamentary group. She was the Minister of Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture from 2001 to 2005. Künast announced on 5 November 2010 that she we will be the candidate for Governing Mayor of Berlin for Alliance '90/The Greens in the Berlin state election, 2011.[1]
She was born in Recklinghausen, North Rhine-Westphalia. She studied social work in Düsseldorf and worked from 1977 to 1979 in this profession in a jailhouse in Berlin. After that she studied law until 1985 and worked as lawyer.
Since 1979, Künast has been a member of the German Green Party (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), first in the Alternative List in West Berlin. In the 1990s she was member of parliament and chairwoman of the greens in the parliament of Berlin. From June 2000 to March 2001 she was co-chair of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen on the national level, together with Fritz Kuhn. Since her party at the time did not allow the combination of functions in the party and the government in one person, she resigned when she became minister in the second government of Gerhard Schröder in 2001. Until 2005, Künast served as the German Minister for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, known for increasing consumer protection, supporting organic farming, and expanding animal welfare.
Künast is also a member of the Humanist Union, a civil rights organization.[2] She is on the board of trustees of the Berlin-based AIDS-Hilfe (AIDS-Help) group,[3] and is an honorary member of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation[4] and the Angelo Roncalli Committee within that organization.[5]
After the 2005 election she became co-chair of the Green parliamentary party, again together with Fritz Kuhn. In July 2009 she was accused of antisemitism by the Jerusalem Post, after she had allegedly been overheard calling the pro-Israel "Stop the Bomb" organisation a "Mossad front", which she denied.[6][7]
In 2010, she along with Cécile Duflot, Monica Frassoni, and Marina Silva were named by Foreign Policy magazine to its list of top global thinkers,[8] for taking Green mainstream.