German Greens criticized for removing men from image

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BERLIN (AP) The German Green Party has been criticized on social media for tweeting a photo of its election candidates cropped to remove all men.

The party’s local branch in Berlin’s Mitte district posted the all-female photo on Twitter on Wednesday with a caption poking fun at photos of the rival center-right Union bloc which it said only showed older men .

It later emerged that three of the Greens’ male candidates had been cut from the image to show only the six women. All men are members of ethnic minority groups.

Taylan Kurt, one of the male candidates cut from the photo, has dismissed criticism from his party.

I am a man and that is precisely why I want Germany to continue to be ruled by a woman in the future. Because (Baerbock) is better than the other two guys and because it should be natural that half the power should be with women.

Ario Mirzaie, spokesperson for the Mitte district party, said he was surprised by the controversy over the photo. He said the crop, which had also removed it from the photo, was no problem for him.

Women are at the center of green policy, said Mirzaie.

The Greens describe themselves as a feminist party and have a rule that women should be placed first on their electoral lists.

This demand recently posed a problem for the Greens when its regional branch in the small state of Saarland chose a man to lead its electoral list, prompting the party to restart the process in favor of a woman. But state election officials have rejected the new list on technical grounds, meaning the party is unlikely to be on the Saar ballot for the September 26 national elections in Germany. The decision was confirmed Thursday by federal election officials.

The Greens’ candidate to succeed Angela Merkel as German Chancellor this fall, Annalena Baerbock, has called for the creation of a dedicated Immigration Ministry.

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