Leading figures in Germany’s Green Party have called for a new, more positive image of masculinity in an effort to attract young male voters, according to a report in Der Spiegel.
The initiative includes embracing gym culture, powerful cars and boxing as part of a broader attempt to move beyond the party’s traditional “softie” stereotype.
A group of senior Green politicians, including party co-leader Franziska Brantner and her predecessor Ricarda Lang, has contributed to a previously unpublished manifesto that calls for developing an attractive vision of “good masculinity.” The text has been signed by 13 politicians — nine men and four women — drawn from federal, state and European level, Der Spiegel reported.
The text acknowledges that the party has focused heavily on feminist issues but has “forgotten to offer something for what masculinity can be instead.”
The authors argue that, by defining only what men should not be — not violent, not dominant, not oppressive — the party left a gap. “We have created a vacuum, and into this vacuum the old images are now flowing back,” the manifesto states, warning that the space had been ceded to “masculinist” influencers such as Andrew Tate.
“We need a positive image of what good masculinity can be,” the document states.
Green co-leader Felix Banaszak told Der Spiegel that he understood why many women’s patience with men may be exhausted, but argued the party must still make an offer to male voters. “But it is a problem if the Left broadly signals: as a man you are the problem and you remain so,” he said. The progressive camp, he added, needed “its own positive understanding of masculinity that is not only a deficit.”
Bundestag member Julian Joswig was photographed lifting weights and said the Greens had to leave their “hygiene zones,” adding that he might post fitness content on social media.
The push comes as the Greens, traditionally strong among younger, urban and female voters, look to broaden their appeal amid declining support in some demographics. Brantner and Banaszak took over as co-leaders in November 2024, after Ricarda Lang and Omid Nouripour resigned that September following poor results in a series of regional elections.
Young men lean much more to the Right than young women, and the Greens fare particularly poorly among that group. At the February 23, 2025 federal election, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) was the strongest party among men aged 18 to 24, taking about 25 per cent of their vote, while the left-wing Die Linke (The Left) drew around 37 per cent of women in the same age group, according to Infratest Dimap exit polling for public broadcaster ARD. The Greens finished fourth with 11.6 per cent, down from 14.7 per cent in 2021.
The party has long championed feminist and gender-equality policies and campaigned on questions of gender identity.
Activities such as weightlifting (pumpen, German gym slang for lifting), boxing and driving high-performance cars are now presented as compatible with Green values.
In popular culture, left-wing men are often mocked as physically weak, effeminate or lacking traditional masculinity. A common catch-all insult is “soy boy.” The term stems from the claim that soy products, because of their phytoestrogens, reduce testosterone, though scientific evidence for a significant effect at moderate consumption is limited.
The insult is frequently applied to environmentalists, feminists and supporters of “woke” causes, and has long been attached to vegetarians and Greens.
Germany’s Greens Party has come up with a detailed plan to make life easier and more attractive for Muslims in Germany.https://t.co/q4DJ2T0zN1
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) March 18, 2026
