| Animal Protection Party | |
| Native Name: | Tierschutzpartei |
| Native Name Lang: | de |
| Colours: | Teal |
| Headquarters: | Schreiersgrüner Str. 5 08233 Treuen |
| Leader1 Title: | Chairpersons |
| Leader1 Name: | Paula López Vicente, Marcel Krohn, Robert Gabel |
| Foundation: | 13 February 1993 |
| Ideology: | Animal rights Animal welfare Environmentalism |
| Position: | Centre-left |
| European: | Animal Politics EU |
| Europarl: | The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL[1] |
| Seats1 Title: | Bundestag |
| Seats2 Title: | State Parliaments |
| Seats3 Title: | European Parliament |
| Country: | Germany |
The Human Environment Animal Protection Party (German: Partei Mensch Umwelt Tierschutz, short form: Animal Protection Party, German: Tierschutzpartei|links=no) is a political party in Germany, founded in 1993. In 2014, one of the party's candidates was elected to the European Parliament, and one candidate was elected again in 2019. The party's only EU representative resigned from the party in February 2020 and since this date the party has had no members in the European Parliament. The party has never had any members in any of the German state parliaments, nor has it ever had any members of the Bundestag.
The party aspires to turn away from the anthropocentric view of life. Its main goal is the introduction of more animal rights into the German constitution. Those include the right to live and the protection from physical and psychological damages. The Tierschutzpartei also demands prohibition of animal testing, bullfighting, hunting, the production of furs, circus animals and agricultural animal husbandry, as well as the adaptation of the people to veganism. The party supports a ban on genetic engineering and wants a reduction of car traffic and an immediate exit from nuclear energy. Economically it supports more social justice, a stamp duty and a free basic income.[2]
In the 2014 European parliament elections, the Animal Protection Party received 1.25% of the national vote (366,303 votes in total) and returned one MEP, Stefan Eck, who sat with the EUL-NGL.[3] In December 2014 Eck left the party and became an independent MEP in the EUL-NGL-group.
In the 2019 European parliament elections, the Animal Protection Party received 1.45% of the national vote (541,984 votes in total) and returned one MEP, Martin Buschmann.[4] Buschmann resigned from the party in February 2020 after it was revealed that from 1992 to 1996 he was a member of and a chairman in the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD).[5]
In the 2021 federal election, the Animal Protection Party received 1,5 % of the national vote (675,353 votes in total), which is the best result in a national election since the party has been founded.[6]
The party holds 37 seats in municipality and county assemblies[7] and one seat in the Bezirkstag Oberbayern.[8]
Sebastian Everding was elected for the party in the 2024 European Parliament election in Germany.[9]