Karl Bär | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Bär in 2009 | |
| Member of theBundestag | |
| Assumed office 26 October 2021 | |
| Constituency | Bavaria |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1985-03-13)13 March 1985 (age 40) |
| Political party | Alliance 90/The Greens |
Karl Bär (born 13 March 1985 inTegernsee) is a German politician. He became amember of theBundestag in the2021 German federal election.[1][2] He is affiliated with theAlliance 90/The Greens party.[3]
He became a member of theGreen Youth organisation (Grüne Jugend) in 2002.[4] From 2011 to 2012, he was national spokesperson for theGreen Youth.[5][6]
After graduating from high school in Tegernsee in 2004, Bär studiedIslamic Studies andAgricultural Science with a minor inPolitical Science andSociology[7][5] in Berlin. From 2009 to 2013, he worked as a student assistant and later a research assistant for the Green member of the BundestagAgnes Krumwiede.[8] Then, he joined the Munich Environmental Institute as a consultant for agricultural policy.[9] Bär is a sperm donor and the father of a child who lives with its mother and her wife.[10]
In 2002, Bär joined the Green Youth and was the spokesperson for the GJHolzkirchen until 2004.[11] Bär was already a member of the Federal Executive Board of the Green Youth as an assessor from 2006 to 2007 and 2009 to 2010.[12] On 8 October 2011, he was elected spokesperson at the 37th Federal Congress in Gelsenkirchen.[12] Due to his age, he did not run for a second term of office and was replaced as spokesperson by Jens Parker on 28 October 2012.[13]
In 2009, he ran as a candidate for the Bavarian GreensBundestag election in 12th place on the list and as a direct candidate in the Starnberg Bundestag constituency but did not enter parliament.[14] In December 2012, he was nominated by the Bavarian Greens in 14th place on the list for the2013 Bundestag election and stood again as a direct candidate in the Starnberg Bundestag constituency.[15][16] In the 2014 local elections in Bavaria on 16 March, Bär stood forAlliance 90/The Greens for the Holzkirchen municipal council and theMiesbach district council and was elected to the municipal council and district council.[17][18] In the newly formed federal constituency ofBad Tölz-Wolfratshausen – Miesbach, Bär was again a direct candidate for the2017 federal election and stood in 12th place on the Bavarian Greens' list after losing the coin toss for 10th place following a tie.[19] In the end, the eleven Greens ahead of him on the list entered the Bundestag, even though Karl Bär was the only Bavarian Green direct candidate to win second place in the constituency.[19] In the2020 local elections in Bavaria, he was re-elected to the Holzkirchen municipal council and the Miesbach district council.[20][5] In April 2021, he was again nominated by the Bavarian Greens for 12th place on the list for the2021 federal election, as well as by the members of the Green district associations ofBad Tölz-Wolfratshausen andMiesbach as a direct candidate infederal constituency 223.[21][22][23] Bär managed to enter theGerman Bundestag in 2021 via the state list.[24]
In November 2022, he was one of three members of the Green parliamentary group in the Bundestag to vote against theEU's Transatlantic Economic and Trade Agreement with Canada.[25][26]
Since 2017, Bär, together with the Munich Environmental Institute in theVenosta Valley inSouth Tyrol, has been trying to draw attention to the high use ofpesticides in apple cultivation,[27][28] which he believes poses a major health risk. In addition, massive effects onbiodiversity were to be expected.[29] After a poster campaign titled 'Pestizidtirol' in South Tyrol'stourism advertising style, the then deputy provincial governor Arnold Schuler filed a complaint for defamation.[30] In 2020, the public prosecutor's office inBolzano brought charges against Bär and the Environmental Institute at the provincial court.[30] 1367 farmers joined this complaint in the region. The request forlegal assistance from the Munich I public prosecutor's office was unsuccessful, citing theright to freedom of expression.[31]
The trial attracted much media attention and petitions,[31] giving the impression across Europe that critics were being silenced through intimidation and lawsuits.[32][33] On the first day of the trial on 22 October 2020, Arnold Schuler announced that he was withdrawing his lawsuit; by the fifth day of the trial on 28 January 2022, the last plaintiff had also withdrawn his lawsuit against Bär.[34] However, he still had to answer for trademark counterfeiting, as he had used the logo of the Südtirol brand family in the campaign.[34] On 6 May 2022, Bär was also acquitted on this point, as the court in Bolzano found that he had not used the logo for commercial purposes.[35]
| LINKE |
| ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GRÜNE |
| ||||||
| SPD |
| ||||||
| CDU/CSU |
| ||||||
| AfD |
| ||||||
| Other |
| ||||||
