Bettina Jarasch

Jarasch is the daughter of entrepreneur and former member of the Senate of Bavaria Helmut Hartmann. She studied philosophy and political science at the Free University of Berlin. Before entering politics, she worked as an editor, consultant, and author.[1] Jarasch is married to journalist Oliver Jarasch, who is a department head at Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg. They have two children.[3]

Jarasch was an advisor to the Alliance 90/The Greens Bundestag group from 2000 to 2009; until 2005 for MdB Christa Nickels, and thereafter for parliamentary leader Renate Künast. In 2009, she became a member of the party's Berlin state executive, and was spokeswoman for education.[1]

On 6 March 2011, Jarasch was elected co-leader of the Berlin Greens alongside Daniel Wesener. She is considered a member of the moderate Realo wing of the party.[2][1] In 2013, she was elected to the federal Greens executive, becoming head of the party's commission for "religious communities, ideologies, and the state". She left this office in 2018.

She was one of a four lead candidates for the Greens in the 2016 Berlin state election. She was placed third on the party list behind Ramona Pop and Antje Kapek, and ahead of fellow co-leader Daniel Wesener, and was elected to the Abgeordnetenhaus.[1] At the end of the year, she and Wesener left office as co-leaders.

Jarasch applied for the top position on the Berlin state list in the 2017 federal election after Renate Künast indicated she would accept third place. Jarasch was challenged by Lisa Paus for the position, and was defeated 798 votes to 308. She subsequently did not run for election to the Bundestag.[4]

On 5 October 2020, Jarasch was nominated by the Berlin party leadership as lead candidate for the 2021 state election. Her nomination was received with surprise, as Senator Ramona Pop and parliamentary group leader Antje Kapek had been considered the most likely candidates. RBB attributed this to division within the party surrounding Pop and Kapek which allowed Jarasch to secure the nomination.[1] At a party conference on 12 December, Jarasch was formally elected as the top candidate, receiving 142 votes in favour, none against, and five abstentions.[2]

Jarasch declared that she sought to make the Greens the biggest party in the Abgeordnetenhaus, and to become the first Green Governing Mayor of Berlin. This is in line with state opinion polling, which showed the Greens consistently in first place since the end of 2018. She expressed her satisfaction with the incumbent SPD–Left–Green coalition, and spoke poorly of the Christian Democratic Union, indicating she may not seek an agreement with the CDU as other branches of the Greens have.[5]

Jarasch is active within the Catholic Church, and has been the leader of the pastoral council of the St. Marien-Liebfrauen congregation in Berlin-Kreuzberg for many years. In November 2016, the Central Committee of German Catholics elected Jarasch as one of 45 distinguished persons.[6] On 24 November 2017, she was elected spokesperson for the "Basic Political and Ethical Issues" department in the Central Committee.[7]

Alongside eight other theologians and well-known Catholics, in February 2019, Jarasch penned an open letter to Cardinal Reinhard Marx. The signatories called for a "new start in regard to sexual morality", including "reasonable and just assessment of homosexuality", "real separation of powers" in the church, and curbing the excesses of the ordination office and opening it to women. They appealed to the German Bishops' Conference to give diocesan priests the freedom to choose their way of life, "so that celibacy can again credibly refer to the kingdom of heaven".[8]