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Party of Humanists
German political party From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Party of Humanists (German: Partei der Humanisten) is a minor political party in Germany that first participated in the 2017 federal election.[4] It is considered left-of-centre and supports socially liberal and secular policies, such as a federal European state, openness towards technologies such as stem cell research and strict separation between state and religion.[5] The party contested the 2017 and 2021 federal elections, the 2019 European elections and numerous state elections from 2018 onwards. It also contested the 2024 European Parliament election in Germany.[6]
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History
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In spring 2012, the Facebook group "Initiative Humanismus" created the "Manifesto of the Initiative Humanismus", which was to serve as the basis for a humanist party. The Party of Humanists was founded on the basis of this document on 4 October 2014 in Berlin.[7][8] The provisional executive committee consisted of eight spokespersons for various subject areas.[9]
At the first ordinary federal party conference in March 2015, David Helmus was elected as the party's first chairman.[10] Beka Kobaidze served as secretary general, while Ioana Hauke took over as treasurer. According to the chairman, the party had around 75 members in September of the same year.[11]
The Berlin regional association was founded on 2 April 2016.[12] A few months later, the regional associations of Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg were founded.[13][14] Shortly afterwards, in February of the following year, the Bavarian state association was also founded.[15]
On 21 March 2017, the Party held a joint press conference along with the Pirate Party Germany, the Liberal Democrats, the New Liberals, the Transhuman Party Germany, and the youth organization of The Left to announce a "socialliberale proclamation" and better cooperation among the participating organizations.[16][17][18][19][20]
In the 2017 German federal election, the Humanist Party took part in an election for the first time, although it was initially only electable in North Rhine-Westphalia. For this purpose, various teams were set up within the party, which now has around 600 members, for internal party organisation.[21] In the election, the party received 5.991 second votes.[22] After the federal election, the party received an influx of new members. As a result, state associations were founded in Hamburg and Lower Saxony in the same year, as well as state associations in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Rhineland-Palatinate, Bremen and Schleswig-Holstein in 2018.[23][24]
In January 2019, Steven Pinker was accepted onto the advisory board of the Humanist Party. One month later, in February 2019, Michael Shermer, founder of the American Skeptics Society, also became a member of the advisory board.[25][26]
The Humanist Party was registered for the European elections on 15 March 2019, in which it took part with its lead candidate Robin Thiedmann. It achieved 0.2% of 62,604 votes, but missed out on a place in the European Parliament.[27] In 2021, the last four state associations, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Thuringia and Saarland were founded.[28][29] Shortly after the founding of the Brandenburg state association, the party celebrated its new size of 1800 members.[30] In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the first digital federal party conference was held on 29 January and 20 February 2022.
In April 2023, 19-year-old Lasse Schäfer was elected as the new national chairman. This makes him the youngest party chairman in Germany.[31]
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Party platform
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The underlying ideology is evolutionary humanism.[32] The core themes of the Humanist Party are science and education, the right of self-determination of the individual, and secularization.[33] For example, the party supports the liberal and self-responsible use of drugs,[34] supports legal voluntary euthanasia[35][36] and is against circumcision of children.[37] The party also supports the implementation of universal basic income.[33] The party is considered left of the political centre.[3]
Currently, the Party of Humanists is the only party in Germany that specifically targets non-religious people, freethinkers, and atheists as voters.[38]
Programme
Health and science
- Compulsory health insurance should only cover evidence based medicine, not pseudomedicine such as homeopathy
- Legalization of active euthanasia under specific circumstances
- Legalization of all drugs, but only for adults and with more prevention measures such as education, drug-checking, regulated production and sale[39]
- Openness towards new technology and impartial assessment of the harms benefits, e. g. with respect to genome editing[40] and stem cell research
- Reduction of antibiotic use in livestock farming in order to avoid emerging resistances
- Funding for in-vitro-meat research
EU and military
- Founding of a united European Federal Republic. Today's national states shall be converted into strong sovereign regions.[41]
- Rejection of a compulsory military service year for young adults
- Establishing a united European military
Economy
- Simplification of the tax system by eliminating exemptions as well as cutback on unnecessary subsidies
- Deregulation of shop opening hours on Sundays
- Trialing and implementation of universal basic income
Climate
- Stopping the nuclear energy phase-out in Germany and utilization of new reactor types to combat climate change
Social topics
- Legalization of surrogate motherhood
- Legalization of sex work, modeling after New Zealand
- Legalization of abortion regardless of gestation age, modeling after Canadian abortion laws
Freedom of speech and the Internet
- Repeal of upload-filters and protection of net-neutrality
Religion
![Thumb](#/media/File:"Kein_Kalifat_Plakat"_der_PdH_zur_Europawahl_2024.jpg)
- Complete separation of church and state
- Introduction of unified ethics education instead of compulsory religious education in schools[42]
- Removing references to god from the constitution and other laws
- Prohibition of medically not-indicated religious circumcision in children unable to consent
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Leadership
Since 15 July 2024, the party's leadership has consisted of:[1]
- Felicitas Klings (Party Leader)
- Sascha Klughardt (General Secretary)
- Narek Avetisyan (Treasurer)
Federal executive board
The party's federal executive board is made up of:[1]
- Ole Teschke
- Dominic Vice
- Josephine Keller
- Andreas Stirner
- Daniel Keye
- Dr. Jochen Sieck
- Manuel Cran
- Ricardo Reitz
Federal state parties
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Election results
Federal parliament (Bundestag)
European Parliament
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References
External links
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