Oskar Lafontaine

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Oskar Lafontaine

Oskar Lafontaine (born September 16, 1943 in Saarlouis-Roden) is a left-wing German politician and a leading member of the Left Party. He is of French descent.

Lafontaine's views and remarks have made him a polarizing figure in German politics; most Germans are either fond of his politics or disdain them. Some have compared Lafontaine to Edmund Stoiber; both are close to the fringes of the German political mainstream, but come from opposite ends of the political spectrum.

1 Political rise
2 Chancellor candidacy
3 Political comeback
4 Minister of Finance
5 Leaving the SPD/Formation of the Left Party
6 Criticisms of Lafontaine
7 Education and private life
8 External links

[edit] Political rise

He rose to prominence locally as mayor of Saarbrücken and became more widely known as a critic of chancellor Helmut Schmidt's support for the NATO plan to deploy Pershing II missiles in Germany. From 1985 to 1998 he served as prime minister of the Saarland. In this position he struggled to conserve the industrial base of this state which was based on steel production and coal mining with subsidies.

[edit] Chancellor candidacy

In the German federal election of 1990, he was the SPD's Chancellor candidate. The party was defeated due to the national euphoria following the reunification. During the campaign he was attacked with a knife by a mentally deranged woman after a speech in Cologne. His carotid artery was slashed and he remained in a critical condition for several days.

[edit] Political comeback

At the "Mannheim convention" in 1995, he was elected chairman of the SPD in a surprise move, replacing Rudolf Scharping. He was mainly responsible for bringing the whole political weight of the SPD to bear against Helmut Kohl and his CDU party, rejecting bipartisan cooperation that had characterized German politics for many years. Lafontaine argued that any help given to Kohl would only lengthen his unavoidable demise.

After this strategy gave the SPD an unexpectedly clear victory at the polls in September 1998, he was appointed Federal Minister of Finance in the first government of Gerhard Schröder.

[edit] Minister of Finance

During his short tenure as Minister of Finance, Lafontaine was a main bogeyman of UK Eurosceptics, because among other things he had called for the prompt tax harmonisation of the European Union, the result of which would have been an increase in UK taxes. On March 11, 1999, he resigned from all his official and party offices, claiming "lack of cooperation" in the cabinet had become unbearable. More recently, he has become known for his attacks against the current German government in the tabloid Bild-Zeitung which is generally considered conservative.

[edit] Leaving the SPD/Formation of the Left Party

On May 24, 2005 Lafontaine left the SPD. After two weeks of speculation it was announced on June 10 that he would run as the lead candidate for the Left Party (Die Linkspartei), a coalition of the Labor and Social Justice Party (WASG), which is based in western Germany, and the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) , which is the successor to the East German communist party[1]. He joined the WASG on June 18, 2005 and was selected to head their list for the 2005 Federal Election in North Rhine-Westphalia on the same day. Moreover he also unsuccessfully contested the Saarbrücken constituency. Nevertheless, the result of the Linkspartei in the Saarland was by far the best in any of the federal states in the West of Germany.

[edit] Criticisms of Lafontaine

An article by Lafontaine on Erich Honecker, state and party leader of the GDR and a Saarländer like him, in the magazine Der Spiegel was criticised as laudatory by many observers. In the late 80s and early 90s he tarnished his left wing credentials with a plea for pro-business policies and a call for the reduction of the influx of Germans from Eastern Europe and asylum-seekers.

In 1993 the press reported alleged contacts of Lafontaine to the red-light milieu of Saarbrücken. This motivated him to formulate the most repressive press law of all the German länder.

[edit] Education and private life

He studied physics at the University of Saarbrücken from 1974 to 1985.

Lafontaine is married to Christa Müller who leads a campaign against genital mutiliation in Africa. They have a son, Carl Maurice, born 1997.

[edit] External links

(German) www.Sozialisten.de - The German Left Party
European-Left

Preceded by Fritz Schuster	Mayor of Saarbrücken 1976 – 1985	Succeeded by Hans-Jürgen Koebnick (SPD)
Preceded by Rudolf Scharping	Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany 1995 – 1999	Succeeded by Gerhard Schröder
Preceded by Werner Zeyer (CDU)	Minister president of Saarland 1985 – 1998	Succeeded by Reinhard Klimmt (SPD)
Preceded by Theodor Waigel (CSU)	German Minister of Finance 1998 – 1999	Succeeded by Hans Eichel (SPD)
Preceded by Roland Claus	chairman of the parliamentary group Left Party 2005 – present	Succeeded by Incumbent