Ska Keller (Germany)

Ska Keller (MEP – Greens/EFA) is a German activist, migration campaigner and politician. Born in Germany near the Polish border, she calls anti-racism and internationalism her guiding principles.

In FU Berlin, Keller studied Islamic, Turkish and Jewish studies, and speaks six languages. She has been a passionate voice for youth empowerment in Europe – she joined Grüne Jugend, the youth wing of the German Green party, in 2001, and was elected as Co-Spokesperson of the Federation of Young European Greens from 2005-2007. She was elected to the European Parliament in 2009. 

Keller sits on the Committee on Development, Committee on International Trade, and on the Delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee. She is a passionate voice against 'Fortress Europe,' and campaigns strongly for the rights of refugees and migrants.

From her manifesto: “The next European elections will happen in the midst of a discussion on which way Europe will go. Achieving a progressive majority will be vital for the future of the EU. We Greens need to fight for our ideas in every country and in every corner of Europe. “I want to help ensure a strong Green presence all over Europe. Many member parties will face a tough campaign in 2014. As leading candidates, it will be our task to help you and to make the support of the European Green family visible in your country. I'm eager to run a European campaign and to fight for our Green ideas in every corner of the European Union to support you.”

José Bové (France)

José Bové (MEP – Greens/EFA) is a French farmer, politician and social activist. Born in Talence, near Bordeaux, Bové has worked as a sheep farmer on the Larzac for most of his life. He has been at the forefront of a series of crucial environmental campaigns – the Fight for Larzac (which protected his local area from an expanded military base), the anti-globalisation movement, the anti-GMO movement and the anti-shale gas fracking movement.

In 2007 he ran in the French presidential election, saying that he was fighting for “people that do not have a voice.” His strong background in environmental mobilisation has lead him to be a powerful voice for change in the European Parliament, where he has sat since 2009.

From his manifesto: “This century’s challenges are global, whether in the area of climate change or nuclear energy, development or common goods, poverty or education, human rights or nature’s rights. No State, no matter how illustrious its past, can go it alone.

“The European Greens draw on the vitality of the movement to find the energy needed to combat this resurgence of the dark side of Europe. By building a transnational democracy and by transcending the conventions of our national political culture we are able to find what best resembles us.”