Franziska Maria "Ska" Keller (; born 22 November 1981) is a German politician and member of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

for the

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

constituency. She is a member of the

Alliance 90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a Green politics, green List of political parties in Germany, political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens ...

, part of the

European Green Party The European Green Party (EGP), also referred to as European Greens, is the European political party that represents national parties from across Europe who share Green values. The European Greens works closely with the Greens–European Fre ...

. She is co-president of the Greens/EFA group in the

and member of the Committee on Fisheries (PECH) as well as the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI). Ska Keller was the European Greens' frontrunner during the European elections 2014 together with

José Bové Joseph "José" Bové (born 11 June 1953) is a French farmer, politician and Syndicalism, syndicalist, member of the alter-globalization movement, and spokesman for Via Campesina. He was one of the twelve official candidates in the 2007 French pres ...

and has been elected to lead them again for the European elections 2019, together with Dutchman

Bas Eickhout Bas Eickhout (born 8 October 1976) is a Dutch politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since the 2009 elections. He is a member of the GreenLeft, part of the European Green Party. Education and early career Eickhout ...

. She is currently serving her third term in office (2019–2024), while she was first elected into the European Parliament at the age of 27 in 2009.

Education

Keller studied

Islamic studies Islamic studies refers to the academic study of Islam, and generally to academic multidisciplinary "studies" programs—programs similar to others that focus on the history, texts and theologies of other religious traditions, such as Easter ...

, Turkish and

Jewish Studies Jewish studies (or Judaic studies; he, מדעי היהדות, madey ha-yahadut, sciences of Judaism) is an academic discipline centered on the study of Jews and Judaism. Jewish studies is interdisciplinary and combines aspects of history (esp ...

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

and at

Sabancı University Sabancı University ( tr, Sabancı Üniversitesi), established in 1994, is a young foundation university located on a 1.26 million squaremeter campus which is about 40 km from Istanbul's city center. Its first students matriculated in 1999. ...

in Istanbul. Besides her native language of German, she is also fluent in English, French and Spanish, as well as speaking some Turkish and Arabic. She completed her degree in 2010.

Political career

Early beginnings

In 2001, Keller joined the Green Youth and served as spokesperson of the

Federation of Young European Greens The Federation of Young European Greens, often referred to as FYEG ( ), is an umbrella organisation that gathers young green movements and organisations across Europe with 40,000 members. FYEG's aim is to defend climate and social justice on the ...

from 2005 to 2007. From 2007 to 2009, she led the Green Party in Brandenburg having joined the

German Green party Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 (fo ...

in 2002. In

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...

, she campaigned for a statewide referendum against new coal mines.

Member of the European Parliament, 2009–present

During her first term (2009–2014), Keller served on the

Committee on Development The Committee on Development (Commission du développement, DEVE) is a committee of the European Parliament responsible for promoting, implementing and monitoring the development and cooperation policy of the European Union, notably talks with deve ...

from 2009 to 2012. From 2012 to 2014, she was a member of the

Committee on International Trade The Committee on International Trade (INTA) is a committee of the European Parliament. Its current chair, elected on 10 July 2019, is Bernd Lange.Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. In her second term (2014–2019), Keller became co-president of the Greens/EFA group in the

in 2016. Additionally, Keller was a member of the Committee on International Trade from 2014 to 2017. She continued to serve as a member of the Delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee and joined the Parliament's delegation to the

Cariforum The Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) is a subgroup of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States and serves as a base for economic dialogue with the European Union. It was established in 1992. Its membership comprises the 15 Caribbean ...

. From 2009 to 2011, Keller also served as member of the European Parliament's High-Level Contact Group for Relations with the Turkish Cypriot Community in the Northern Part of the Island (CYTR). Ska Keller has been a leading candidate of the

for the European elections in 2014 as well as in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. In January 2014, Keller won the Green Primary, a pan-European

open primary Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the c ...

. On 24 November 2018, Keller was elected leading candidate for the second time, together with

In July 2019, Keller announced she would be a candidate for the presidency of the European Parliament.

Sira Rigo Sira may refer to: Languages * Sira languages, a clade of Bantu languages ** Sira language, a Bantu language of Gabon Places Czech Republic * Sirá, a municipality and village India * Province of Sira, a historical Mughal province in south ...

of the GUE/NGL, David-Maria Sassoli of the S&D and

Jan Zahradil Jan Zahradil (born 30 March 1963) is a Czech politician for the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) who has been Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since the Czech Republic entered the European Union in 2004. Zahradil also served as Member of t ...

of the ECR also ran for the post, with Sassoli eventually winning with the support of 345 out of a total of 667 MEPs. In September 2022, Keller announced her resignation as co-chair of her party's group and her decision not to run again in the 2024 elections.

Other activities

* Institut Solidarische Moderne (ISM), Member (since 2010)

Political positions

Keller is known for her commitment to fighting corruption in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

. In February 2018, she participated in protests in Sofia against corruption in Bulgaria. In September 2019, European Commission President-elect

Ursula von der Leyen Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen (; Albrecht, born 8 October 1958) is a German politician who has been serving as the president of the European Commission since 2019. She served in the Cabinet of Germany, German federal government between 2005 an ...

created the new position of "Vice President for Protecting our European Way of Life", who will be responsible for upholding the rule-of-law, internal security and migration. Keller said it was "scary to see a proposal for a portfolio on 'protecting the European way of life' which includes migration and border protection."

Personal life

Keller is married to Finnish politician . She abbreviated her first name from Franziska to Ska by omitting the first part ('Franzi-')."Ska Keller heißt eigentlich Franziska, nur mochte sie nicht Franzi genannt werden.":
Jung, gebildet, ehrgeizig - Berufspolitiker
faz.net, 23 August 2009

References

External links

Homepage of Ska Keller
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keller, Ska 1981 births Living people People from Guben Alliance 90/The Greens MEPs MEPs for Germany 2009–2014 MEPs for Germany 2014–2019 MEPs for Germany 2019–2024 21st-century women MEPs for Germany