 | You can helpexpand this article with text translated fromthe corresponding article in German. (June 2019)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
Carola Rackete | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2024 | |
| Member of the European Parliament forGermany | |
| Assumed office 16 July 2024 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Carola Rackete (1988-05-08)8 May 1988 (age 36) Preetz,West Germany |
| Political party | Independent close toThe Left (since 2023) |
| Alma mater | Edge Hill University Jade University of Applied Sciences |
| Occupation | Sea captain •Activist •Politician |
| Awards | Medalla d'Honor del Parlament de Catalunya (2019) Medal of the City of Paris (2019) |
Carola Rackete (pronounced[kaˈʁoːla'ʁakætə];[nb 1] born 8 May 1988) is a Germanconservation ecologist,activist,politician and formership captain. She was elected to theEuropean Parliament as an independent candidate for the Left Party on June 9, 2024.[1]
Rackete participated in several research expeditions toAntarctica and theSouthern Ocean and is co-founder of the Antarctic Rights initiative. She also supported theExtinction Rebellion movement and took part in forest protests inSweden, as well as the occupations of theHambach Forest and the Dannenrod Forest inGermany. Between 2016 and 2019, she occasionally volunteered for non-governmental sea rescue organisations in theMediterranean.[2] In June 2019, she was arrested for docking a migrant rescue vessel without authorization in the port ofLampedusa,Italy. The custodial judge considered Rackete’s actions as justified because she had a duty to save lives at sea and ruled that Rackete should not have been arrested. In 2021, the pending investigation was formally dismissed, since the state prosecutor didn‘t see reason to proceed to court.[3]
Rackete was born in Preetz, near Kiel, Germany.[4] She graduatedhigh school in 2007, then studied at Maritime School atJade University of Applied Sciences inElsfleth, earning aBachelor of Science innautical science andmaritime transport in 2011.[4] TheB.Sc. in Nautical science atJade University meets the written examination requirement for the captain's licence of theFederal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency of Germany, which is later acquired on the basis of professional experience only.[5]
In 2018 she earned a master's degree in conservation management fromEdge Hill University in England.[4]
Rackete was a navigation officer for two years in scientific expeditions in theArctic and theAntarctic for theAlfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research.[6]
She worked as a conservation volunteer for nine months as part of a European Volunteer Service within theBystrinsky Nature Reserve in theKamchatka Peninsula in Russia. Later, Carola Rackete worked for 10 weeks as safety officer forSilversea Cruises, a luxury cruise line headquartered in Monaco. She later worked as second-officer and Chief Mate on ships owned byGreenpeace and theBritish Antarctic Survey.[4]
From 2015 to 2018 she studiedConservation Management atEdge Hill University inOrmskirk, England, graduating with a Masters.[7]
Since completing her degree in conservation management in 2018, Rackete has been working as a conservationecologist andactivist.[8] She supported the environmental movementExtinction Rebellion in its beginning and co-foundedExtinction RebellionGermany inBerlin in 2019.[9] She was involved in the occupations ofHambach Forest and Dannenröder Forest inGermany.[10][11]
As part of the field research for her master's thesis, Rackete studied the development of thewandering albatross population inSouth Georgia between 2017 and 2018[12] and took part in the long-term monitoring ofseabirds andvegetation.[13] In spring 2020, Rackete was part of a research cruise to theAntarctic conducted byGreenpeace.[14] In 2023, she worked as a research assistant on a research expedition onfin whales in theWest Antarctic conducted by the University of Hamburg.[15] Rackete successfully campaigned against the Davis airport project inAntarctica with theBob Brown Foundation and is committed to the long-term protection ofAntarctica and itswildlife.[16] She is a co-founder of theAntarctic Rights initiative and one of the main initiators of theAntarctic Declaration, which calls forAntarctica to be recognised as alegal entity.[17] In 2022, she took part in a protest by the indigenous Sámi population against deforestation in the Arctic and for the land rights of theSámi.[18]
In her podcast ‘Just Nature?’, Rackete talks about speciesextinction and the importance ofjustice in the global conservation movement.[19]
In November 2021, Racket published the translation of her German environmental justice bestseller, The Time to Act is Now, with theRosa Luxemburg Stiftung.[20]
On 12 June,[21] the ship picked up 53 migrants in the Mediterranean off the Libyan coast.Sea-Watch 3 rejected an offer to dock atTripoli, which is considered unsafe by the European Union and the humanitarian organizations, and headed toward Lampedusa. According to a map they posted,[22] and also to a report by theSüddeutsche Zeitung and othernon-governmental organizations (NGOs) this was the nearest safe harbor permaritime law.[23][6] On 14 June, Italy closed its ports to migrant rescue ships.[24] Italian interior ministerMatteo Salvini refused to allow the ship to dock until other European nations had agreed to take the migrants.[25] Ten of the migrants, including children, pregnant women, and those who were ill, were allowed to disembark.[6] On 28 June, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Portugal offered to take the migrants.[25]
On 29 June, without authorization, Rackete decided to dock.[23][21] The motivation for this was that, according to her, the passengers were exhausted.[24] Rackete was arrested by the Italian authorities after docking.[6][26][27]
Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini accused Rackete of trying to sink an Italian patrol boat that was trying to intercept her and that her ship collided with, calling the incident an act of war and demanding the Netherlands intervene.[23][26]
Italian Prime MinisterGiuseppe Conte "scrambled to address the matter" at the2019 G20 Osaka summit.[28] Germany protested against the arrest.[28] Crowdfunding appeals in Italy and Germany had raised over €1 million as of 1 July for Sea-Watch legal defence.[28]Fortune called Rackete the "fresh new face" of theEuropean migrant crisis.[28]
Sea-Watch 3 has a mainly German crew but sailed under Dutch flag.[29] In the Netherlands, main government partyVVD stated that NGOs that deliberately without permission pick up people should be convicted for facilitating human trafficking.[30] SpokesmanJeroen van Wijngaarden said that: "They are factually not a rescue service but a ferry service."[31] Within the Dutch coalition government, they got support from theCDA, and in the Dutch parliament there basically was a majority that supported this. Nevertheless, the two other parties in the coalition government protested strongly against this statement.[32][29]
Eventually, Rackete was released from house arrest after a court ruling that she had broken no laws and acted to protect passengers' safety.[33][34][35] Rackete's lawyer filed a lawsuit against Salvini for defamation on social media, alleging that he incited his followers to threaten her.[36]
The council of theCity of Paris on 12 July 2019 announced that the two captains ofSea-Watch 3,Pia Klemp and Carola Rackete, will receive theGrand Vermeil Medal, the top award of the City of Paris, for saving migrants at sea, because the two captains symbolized "solidarity for the respect of human lives".[37] Both refused the medal, defining this decision "hypocritical". Klempt wrote in a statement: "You want to award me a medal...because our crews 'work' to rescue migrants from difficult conditions on a daily basis. At the same time your police steal blankets from people you force to live on the streets while you suppress protests and criminalise people who defend the rights of migrants and asylum seekers."[38]
As of July 2019, Rackete was under investigation by Italian authorities for possible criminal activities in regards to undocumented migration. If convicted, Rackete would have faced up to 15 years in prison.[39] In January 2020, on appeal theItalian Supreme Court of Cassation ruled that Rackete should never have been arrested.
On 10 September 2019 she was awarded with theMedal of Honor of the Parliament of Catalonia, given by the president of theCatalan Parliament, in recognition for her humanitarian work.[40] In October 2020, Carola Rakete was awarded the firstKarl Küpper [de] award.[41] On 6 May 2021, two days before her 33rd birthday, she was awarded adoctor honoris causa from theUniversity of Namur inBelgium.[42]
On May 19, 2021 a court inAgrigento ruled that no trial should be held, agreeing with a state prosecutor that the actions had been undertaken in an effort to save the lives of the migrants.[43]
In July 2023, Rackete and the federal leadership ofThe Left announced that the independent Carola Rackete would be one of the party's top candidate for the2024 European elections.[44] The Left is ademocratic socialist political party descended from the Marxist-LeninistSocialist Unity Party of Germany. Rackete suggested that the party should consider distancing itself from itsStalinist past but apologized for this demand after receiving intense criticism from the party.[45] She said at her presentation that she wanted to give thesocial movements a parliamentary voice. Theclimate crisis is the result of capitalist exploitation and it is the biggest crisis of justice in the world, she said.[44] As an independent candidate for the European Parliament, Rackete is committed to climate and social justice. She campaigns for affordable renewable energy for all, a just restructuring of the economy and the preservation and restoration of nature.[46][47]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
