Bundestag: Green politician Renate Künast announces resignation

Bundestag member Renate Künast (Greens) has announced her resignation. She will no longer be a candidate for the 2025 federal election, she writes in a letter to her Berlin district association Tempelhof-Schöneberg, which the dpa has obtained. The “Tagesspiegel” had previously reported. “It is now time to make room for younger people,” the letter says.

However, the 68-year-old stresses that she wants to remain a politician. She will “see” what tasks come next. In her remaining legislative period, she wants to deal with food security, among other things. “Can we continue to rely on imports with confidence, or will imports no longer come due to climate change and geopolitical upheaval, or will they be extremely expensive?” she asks in her letter.

At the same time, the Green politician looks back on the past few years in politics and recalls the enthusiasm over the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. Today, however, she thinks that at the time she lacked awareness of how long the process of social unity would be. She also complains that right-wing extremists and states aim to destroy trust in democratic processes and cause unrest. And she emphasizes: “Our job is to support people against hatred and disinformation.”

Künast has been a member of the Bundestag since 2002 and was Federal Minister for Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture in the red-green federal government from 2001 to 2005. In recent years, she has attracted attention by taking legal action against vicious insults on Facebook. The case went all the way to the Federal Constitutional Court, with the politician winning. Künast personally visited some of the commentators at home and spoke to them.