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Jürgen Trittin | |
|---|---|
 Trittin in January 2013 | |
| Leader ofAlliance '90/The Greens in theBundestag | |
| In office 6 October 2009 – 8 October 2013 Serving with Renate Künast | |
| Chief Whip | Volker Beck |
| Preceded by | Fritz Kuhn |
| Succeeded by | Anton Hofreiter |
| Minister of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety | |
| In office 27 October 1998 – 22 November 2005 | |
| Chancellor | Gerhard Schröder |
| Preceded by | Angela Merkel |
| Succeeded by | Sigmar Gabriel |
| Leader of theAlliance '90/The Greens | |
| In office 3 December 1994 – 27 September 1998 Serving with Krista Sager and Gunda Röstel | |
| Preceded by | Ludger Volmer |
| Succeeded by | Antje Radcke |
| Minister of Federal and European Affairs of Lower Saxony | |
| In office 21 June 1990 – 20 June 1994 | |
| Minister President | Gerhard Schröder |
| Preceded by | Heinrich Jürgens |
| Succeeded by | Heidrun Merk |
| Member of theBundestag Lower Saxony | |
| In office 27 September 1998 – 31 December 2023 | |
| Constituency | Alliance '90/The Greens List |
| Member of theLandtag of Lower Saxony | |
| In office 13 May 1994 – 25 January 1995 | |
| Constituency | Alliance '90/The Greens List |
| In office 5 June 1985 – 13 May 1990 | |
| Constituency | The Greens List |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1954-07-25)25 July 1954 (age 71) |
| Political party | Alliance 90/The Greens |
| Alma mater | University of Göttingen |
| Signature |  |
| Website | www.trittin.de |
Jürgen Trittin (born 25 July 1954) is a GermanGreen politician[1][2] who served asMinister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in the government ofChancellorGerhard Schröder from 1998 to 2005.
Trittin was born inBremen, as son of Helene and Klaus Trittin. He earned a university degree insocial economy inGöttingen and worked as journalist.
Trittin's political career started in 1982 as Secretary of the Alternative-Greens-Initiative List (AGIL) Group in the Göttingen City Council (until 1984). From 1984 to 1985, he worked as press spokesman for the Green Party's group in theLower SaxonyState Assembly, which he joined in 1985 as member of the state parliament.
From 1990 to 1994, Trittin was the Minister for Federal andEuropean Affairs in a coalition government with theSPD, led byMinister-President of Lower SaxonyGerhard Schröder (SPD). In his capacity as minister, he also served as the Head of the Lower Saxony State Mission to the Federal Government in Bonn.
After Schröder's SPD won an absolute majority in the state elections in 1994, the coalition with the Greens was ended. Trittin subsequently served as Member of theLower Saxony State Assembly and as Deputy Chairman of theAlliance 90/The Greens group in that parliament.
Also in 1994, Trittin was elected spokesman (chairman) of the nationalGreen Party, serving alongsideKrista Sager (1994–1996) and laterGunda Röstel (1996–1998).
In the federal red–green coalition, the federalred–green coalition government underChancellorGerhard Schröder, Trittin was appointedFederal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, a role which he held from October 1998 until theGrand Coalition underChancellorAngela Merkel took power in 2005.
In his capacity as minister, Trittin was responsible for the decision to abandon the use ofnuclear power by 2020, called thenuclear power phase-out (seeNuclear power in Germany). He also pushed the 2000Renewable Energy Act through parliament. He was appointed Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety underChancellorGerhard Schröder, a role which he held from October 1998 until theGrand coalition underChancellorAngela Merkel took power in 2005.
In the1998 national elections, Trittin was elected as Member of the GermanBundestag. Upon entering parliament, he discontinued his work as party chairman, because its statutes did not allow concurrently being a member of parliament and a member of the party executive.
After having lost againstFritz Kuhn in the vote on the Green Party's parliamentary group leadership in 2005, Trittin served as vice-chairman group in charge of foreign, security and European policy from 2005 to 2009.[3]
AlongsideRenate Künast, Trittin led the Green Party's campaign for the2009 elections. In the following years, both chaired the party's parliamentary group. In addition, Trittin served as alternate member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
For the2013 elections, the Greens under lead candidates Trittin andKatrin Göring-Eckardt centered their campaign on a call for tax increases for the wealthy, a strategy that many in the party later blamed for its losses in the polls.[4] As part of the campaign, Trittin strengthened his profile as foreign policy expert by making a five-day trip to the United States in May 2013, including meetings withUnited Nations Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon, formerU.S. Secretary of StateHenry Kissinger and officials from theInternational Monetary Fund.[5]
Following his party's defeat in the elections, Trittin became a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and of the German delegation to theNATO Parliamentary Assembly. He also served as deputy chairman of the German-Russian Parliamentary Friendship Group and of the German-Iranian Parliamentary Friendship Group.
In late 2015, Trittin was named co-chairman (alongsideOle von Beust andMatthias Platzeck) of a government-appointed commission tasked with recommending by early 2016 how to safeguard the funding of fulfilling Germany'sexit from nuclear energy.[6] By April 2016, the commission agreed to ask the power firms to pay €23.3 billion ($26.4 billion) into a state fund to cover the costs of nuclear waste storage.[7]
In the negotiations to form a so-calledtraffic light coalition of theSocial Democratic Party (SPD), the Green Party and theFree Democratic Party (FDP) following the2021 federal elections, Trittin was part of his party's delegation in the working group on climate protection and energy policy, co-chaired byMatthias Miersch,Oliver Krischer andLukas Köhler.[8]
In December 2023, Trittin announced that he would not stand in the2025 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the year.[9] He was replaced in the Bundestag byOttmar von Holtz.[10]
In August 2012, Trittin was one of 124 members of the Bundestag to sign a letter that was sent to the Russian ambassador to Germany,Vladimir Grinin, expressing concern over the trial against the three members ofPussy Riot. "Being held in detention for months and the threat of lengthy punishment are draconian and disproportionate," the lawmakers said in the letter. "In a secular and pluralist state, peaceful artistic acts – even if they can be seen as provocative – must not lead to the accusation of serious criminal acts that lead to lengthy prison terms."[11][12]
At the time ofHurricane Katrina in August/September 2005, Trittin wrote an opinion piece in the newspaperFrankfurter Rundschau associating the US failure to sign theKyoto protocol with the hurricane and its devastation.
In August 2005, Trittin responded to a question on how best to react to the 2005 petrol prices crisis with "leave the car at home from time to time." The media, in particular theBild newspaper, attacked these comments.
In 1981, Trittin approved an election platform for the Alternative Green Initiative List, a precursor of the Green Party, which called for the legalization of sexual relations between adults and minors.[13]
Already by 1999, shortly afterGerhard Schröder's coalition government, Trittin toldStern magazine that "Red-Green as a reform project is dead," adding that he saw the Social Democrats as virtually indistinguishable now from the Christian Democrats of former ChancellorHelmut Kohl. He added that the Greens might even consider future political alliances with the Christian Democrats.[14]
In 2001, Trittin compared a prominent Christian Democrat,Laurenz Meyer, to a "skinhead" for declaring that he was proud to be a German. A vigorous debate on the legitimacy of German patriotism has ensued, with most Germans appearing sharply critical of Trittin. The minister justified his remark by noting that extreme-right parties in Germany often use the badge, "I am proud to be a German." However, Trittin came under considerable pressure to quit after making the remark and was openly reprimanded by ChancellorGerhard Schröder. The Greens' voting results subsequently fell significantly – to 7.8 percent, from 12.1 percent in the 1996 state election, in Baden-Württemberg, and to 5.3 percent, from 6.9 percent, in Rhineland-Palatinate.[15]
In 2010, Trittin attended an event to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of theFree Republic of Wendland inHannover where someonethrew a pie at him during a panel discussion.[16]
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