Ricarda Lang | |
|---|---|
 Lang in 2025 | |
| Leader ofAlliance 90/The Greens | |
| In office 29 January 2022 – 16 November 2024 Serving with Omid Nouripour | |
| Deputy |
|
| Preceded by | Annalena Baerbock |
| Succeeded by | Franziska Brantner |
| Deputy Leader ofAlliance 90/The Greens | |
| In office 16 November 2019 – 29 January 2022 Serving with Jamila Schäfer | |
| Leader | |
| Preceded by | Gesine Agena |
| Succeeded by | Pegah Edalatian |
| Leader of theGreen Youth | |
| In office October 2017 – November 2019 Serving with Max Lucks | |
| Preceded by | Jamila Schäfer |
| Succeeded by | Anna Peters |
| Member of theBundestag forBaden-Württemberg | |
| Assumed office 26 October 2021 | |
| Preceded by | multi-member district |
| Constituency | Alliance 90/The Greens list |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Ricarda Lang (1994-01-17)17 January 1994 (age 31) |
| Political party | Alliance 90/The Greens |
| Domestic partner | Florian Wilsch (engaged 2023) |
| Education | German:Hölderlin-Gymnasium Nürtingen (high school; graduated, 2012) |
| Alma mater | Heidelberg University (did not graduate) Humboldt University of Berlin (did not graduate) |
Ricarda Lang (born 17 January 1994) is a German politician of theAlliance 90/The Greens who has been serving as a member of theBundestag since 2021.
Lang served as her party's co-leader from 2022 to 2024, alongsideOmid Nouripour. Previously, she was co-deputy leader of the party and spokeswoman for women's policy from 2019 to 2022, and co-leader of theGreen Youth from 2017 to 2019.
Lang was raised by asingle mother, who was asocial worker and worked at awomen's shelter.[1] Her father was the sculptor Eckhart Dietz, who died in 2019.[2] After graduating from the Hölderlin-Gymnasium Nürtingen in 2012, Lang began studying law, first at theHeidelberg University and later at theHumboldt University of Berlin, eventuallydropping out in 2019 withoutgraduating.[3] In 2025 she finished her bachelor of law.[4]
Lang joined the Green Youth in 2012 at the age of 18. From 2014 to 2015, Lang was speaker for the Campus Greens, the Greens' student association. She was a member of the district executive of theFriedrichshain-Kreuzberg Greens from 2015 to 2016. In October 2015, she became an assessor in the federal board of the Green Youth, and in October 2017 was elected co-spokesperson at the federal congress. In November 2019, she was elected as deputy chairwoman of the Greens and spokeswoman for women's policy.[5][6]
Lang stood in the2019 European Parliament election in 25th place on the Greens list, but was not elected.[7]
Lang successfully ran for theBundestag in the2021 German federal election in tenth place on the Baden-Württemberg list. She also stood in theBacknang – Schwäbisch Gmünd constituency and placed fifth with 11.5% of votes. She became the firstbisexual member of the Bundestag.[8] In parliament, she is a member of the Committee for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth and a deputy member of the Committee for Labor and Social Affairs.[5]
In the negotiations to form acoalition government between theSPD, Greens, and FDP following the2021 federal elections, Lang led her party's delegation in the working group on equality; her co-chairs from the other parties were Petra Köpping (SPD) and Herbert Mertin (FDP).[9]
On 29 January 2022, Lang was elected unopposed atchairwoman of the Greens, along withOmid Nouripour. They succeededAnnalena Baerbock andRobert Habeck, who stepped down after joining theScholz cabinet.[10][11] Following a series of election defeats on the state level, Lang and Nouripour announced their resignation in September 2024.[12]
In early 2022, Lang became one of the six subjects of an embezzlement investigation launched by the Berlin public prosecutor’s office into the entire leadership board of the Green Party over the payment of so-called ‘corona bonuses,’ which had been paid in 2020 to all employees of the party’s federal office and at the same time to its board.[13]
Lang is considered a representative of the left wing of the party. Her main areas of concerns aresocial justice andclimate policy. She also supportsfeminism,body positivity, andqueer politics.[6][14][15][16] She is critical ofindividualist approaches to policy; for example, to tackleclimate change, she opposes focusing on individual consumption and advocates phasing out coal and ending subsidies to environmentally damaging industries. She calls the individualisation of these issues a "ploy to divert attention from the culpability of corporations and political responsibility."[17]
Lang's political goals include an increase inHartz IV payments, better pay forcaregivers, limits onprecariat employment, and more support for people living in rural areas.[18] She supports the admission ofclimate refugees;[19] in particular, she proposes offeringEU citizenship to residents of Pacific island nations whose territory is severely threatened by rising sea levels.[20]
Lang supports arms deliveries toUkraine in the wake of the Russian incursion, calling in the fall of 2022 "that we need to deliver more weapons, that we need to speed up."[21]
Lang has lived inBerlin since 2014. She isbisexual, and became the first openly bisexual Bundestag member upon her election in 2021.[8]On 25 March 2023, she announced her engagement with themathematician Florian Wilsch working atLeibniz University Hannover.[22][23]
| International | |
|---|---|
| People | |
| SPD |
| ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CDU/CSU |
| ||||||
| GRÜNE |
| ||||||
| FDP |
| ||||||
| AfD |
| ||||||
| LINKE |
| ||||||
| OTHER |
| ||||||
