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Oskar Lafontaine

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Oskar Lafontaine
Lafontaine in 2017
Leader of the Social Democratic Party
In office
16 November 1995 – 12 March 1999
General Secretary
Preceded byRudolf Scharping
Succeeded byGerhard Schröder
Leader of The Left
In office
16 June 2007 – 15 May 2010
Serving with Lothar Bisky
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byKlaus Ernst
Minister of Finance
In office
27 October 1998 – 18 March 1999
ChancellorGerhard Schröder
Preceded byTheodor Waigel
Succeeded byHans Eichel
Minister-President of the Saarland
In office
9 April 1985 – 9 November 1998
Preceded byWerner Zeyer
Succeeded byReinhard Klimmt
President of the Bundesrat
In office
1 November 1992 – 31 October 1993
First Vice PresidentBerndt Seite
Preceded byBerndt Seite
Succeeded byKlaus Wedemeier
Lord Mayor of Saarbrücken
In office
22 January 1976 – 9 April 1985
Preceded byFritz Schuster
Succeeded byHans-Jürgen Koebnick
Parliamentary constituencies
Member of the Landtag of Saarland
for Saarlouis
In office
23 September 2009 – 25 April 2022
Preceded bymulti-member district
Succeeded bymulti-member district
Member of the Bundestag
for Saarland
(North Rhine-Westphalia; 2005–2009)
In office
18 October 2005 – 1 February 2010
Preceded bymulti-member district
Succeeded byYvonne Ploetz
Member of the Bundestag
for Saarbrücken I
In office
26 October 1998 – 16 March 1999
Preceded byhimself (1994)
Succeeded byGudrun Roos
In office
15 November 1994 – 17 November 1994
Preceded byhimself (1990)[a]
Succeeded byElke Ferner
Member of the Landtag of Saarland
for Saarbrücken
In office
9 April 1985 – 9 November 1998
Preceded bymulti-member district
Succeeded byKarin Lawall
In office
13 July 1970 – 14 July 1975
Preceded bymulti-member district
Succeeded bymulti-member district
Personal details
Born (1943-09-16) 16 September 1943 (age 81)
Saarlautern, Saarland, Nazi Germany (now Saarlouis, Germany)
Political partyBSW (2023–present)
Other political
affiliations
SPD (1966–2005)
WASG (2005–2007)
The Left (2007–2022)
Independent (2022–2023)
Spouses
  • Ingrid Bachert
    (m. 1967; div. 1982)
  • Margret Müller
    (m. 1982; div. 1988)
  • Christa Müller
    (m. 1993; div. 2013)
  • (m. 2014)
Children2
ResidenceMerzig-Silwingen
Alma materSaarland University
Occupation
  • Politician
  • Publicist
  • Physicist
WebsiteOfficial website

Oskar Lafontaine (German pronunciation: [ˈɔskaʁ lafõˈtɛːn, -fɔnˈ-]; born 16 September 1943) is a German politician. He served as Minister-President of the state of Saarland from 1985 to 1998 and was federal leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) from 1995 to 1999. He was the lead candidate for the SPD in the 1990 German federal election, but lost by a wide margin. He served as Minister of Finance under Chancellor Gerhard Schröder after the SPD's victory in the 1998 federal election, but resigned from both the ministry and Bundestag less than six months later, positioning himself as a popular opponent of Schröder's policies in the tabloid press.

In the lead-up to the 2005 federal election, as a reaction to Schröder's Agenda 2010 reforms, Lafontaine co-founded the left-wing party Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative. Following a merger with the Party of Democratic Socialism in June 2007, he became co-chairman of The Left. He was the lead candidate for the Saarland branch of the party in the 2009 Saarland state election, where it won over 20% of the vote. He announced his resignation from all federal political functions after being diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2009.[1] He retained his position as a member of the Saarland legislature and from May 2012 to 2022 he was the leader of the opposition in Saarland. Lafontaine resigned from the Left Party on 17 March 2022 because it was no longer an "alternative to the politics of social insecurity and inequality," he said.[2]

Family and education

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Lafontaine was born in Saarlautern (now Saarlouis) into a family of craftsmen. His father, Hans Lafontaine, was a professional baker and was killed serving in World War II. He spent his childhood living with his mother, Katharina (née Ferner), and his twin brother, Hans, in Dillingen.

He attended a Catholic episcopal boarding institution in Prüm and there was educated at the Regino-Gymnasium, a public school. He left school in 1962 and received a scholarship from Cusanuswerk, the scholarship body of the Catholic Church in Germany, to study physics at the universities of Bonn and Saarland. Lafontaine graduated in 1969; his thesis concerned the production of monocrystalline barium titanate. He worked for Versorgungs- und Verkehrsgesellschaft Saarbrücken until 1974, serving on its board from 1971.

Lafontaine has been married four times and has two sons by his second and third wives. Lafontaine was married to Ingrid Bachert from 1967 to 1982. From 1982 to 1988 he was married to the artist Margret Müller. Together they have a son (Frederic, born 1982). From 1993 to 2013 he was married to Christa Müller. They have a son together (Carl-Maurice, born 1997). In November 2011, Lafontaine officially presented fellow politician Sahra Wagenknecht as his new girlfriend, who is 26 years his junior.[3] Since 22 December 2014 they have been married.[4] He is a non-practising Catholic.[5]

Political rise

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Lafontaine 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 Minister-President of the Saarland. In this position he struggled to preserve the industrial base of the state, which was based on steel production and coal mining with subsidies, and served as President of the Bundesrat in 1992/93.

Chancellor candidacy and assassination attempt

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Lafontaine election poster, 1990

Lafontaine was the SPD's candidate for Chancellor in the German federal election of 1990. He faced nearly impossible odds. The election had been called two months after the reunification of Germany, and the incumbent government of Helmut Kohl was in a nearly unassailable position.

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.

Political comeback

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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 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 the SPD's unexpectedly clear victory at the polls in September 1998, he was appointed Federal Minister of Finance in the first government of Gerhard Schröder.

Minister of Finance

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During his short tenure as Minister of Finance, Lafontaine was a main bogeyman of UK Eurosceptics. This was because, among other things, he had called for the prompt tax harmonisation of the European Union, which would have resulted in an increase in UK taxes.[6] In 1998, English tabloid The Sun called Lafontaine "Europe's most dangerous man". On 11 March 1999, he resigned from all his official and party offices, claiming that "lack of cooperation" in the cabinet had become unbearable. Until the formation of the Left Party he was known for his attacks against the Schröder government in the tabloid Bild-Zeitung, which is generally considered conservative.

Leaving the SPD, formation of The Left party and later

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On 24 May 2005 Lafontaine left the SPD. After two weeks of speculation it was announced on 10 June that he would run as the lead candidate for The Left party (Die Linke), a coalition of the Labor and Social Justice Party (WASG), which was based in western Germany, and the Left Party.PDS, which was the successor to the ruling East German Socialist Unity Party (SED).[7] Lafontaine joined the WASG on 18 June 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, which he had previously represented from 1990 to 2002. Nevertheless, the result of the Left party in the Saarland was by far the best in any of the federal states in the West of Germany.

In 2007, when the Left Party was formed in a merger between "Left Party.PDS" and WASG, he became chairman alongside Lothar Bisky.

In May 2009, he declared that "Financial capitalism has failed. We need to democratize the economy. The workforce needs to have a far greater say in their companies than has been the case so far."[8]

In 2022, he published the book Ami, it's time to go where he criticizes NATO and American influence in German politics, arguing that Germany has become an American vassal state. The book became a bestseller.[9][10]

In 2024, Lafontaine announced that he had joined the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW).[11] On 27 January 2024 he spoke at the founding party congress.[12][13]

Controversies

[edit]

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he caused controversy among his left-wing base with a plea for pro-business policies and a call for the reduction of immigrants and asylum-seekers.

At one event in 2005, Lafontaine described Fremdarbeiter ("foreign workers", a term associated with the Nazi regime) as a threat to German labour. He said afterwards that he had misspoken, but in an article published in Die Welt, a group of prominent German writers accused him of deliberately appealing to xenophobic and far-right voters.[14]

Lafontaine lives in a manor-like house, commonly known as the "palace of social justice" (Palast der sozialen Gerechtigkeit).[15] When asked by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung about whether this could be in conflict with his socialist ideas, Lafontaine said politicians of the left do not have to be poor, but they have to fight against poverty.[16]

In a column published by the same newspaper Lafontaine criticized the expansion of wind power, citing the alleged "destruction of the German Cultural landscape" as a cause for his objection.[17] The Alliance 90/The Greens top candidate Barbara Meyer-Gluche pushed back at this stance and accused Lafontaine of "irrational fearmongering".[18]

Literature

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  • Hoell, Joachim: Oskar Lafontaine. Provokation und Politik. Eine Biografie. Dirk Verlag EK, Lehrach 2004, ISBN 3-9806151-8-9.
  • Lorenz, Robert: Oskar Lafontaine. Portrait eines Rätselhaften. Monsenstein und Vannerdat, Münster 2013, ISBN 978-3-86991-970-6.
  • Lorenz, Robert: "Techniker der 'kalten Fusion'. Das Führungspersonal der Linkspartei". In: Tim Spier u.a. (Hrsg.): Die Linkspartei. Zeitgemäße Idee oder Bündnis ohne Zukunft? VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-531-14941-7, S. 275–323.

Works

[edit]

References

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  1. ^ "Rückzug als Linken-Chef". Spiegel Online (in German). 23 January 2010. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  2. ^ "Ehemaliger Vorsitzender: Lafontaine tritt aus Linkspartei aus".
  3. ^ Lafontaine und Wagenknecht – Linke Liebe. sueddeutsche.de, 12 November 2011. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
  4. ^ "Oskar Lafontaine und Sahra Wagenknecht haben geheiratet". faz.net (in German). 21 March 2015. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  5. ^ Deutscher Bundestag: Lafontaine, Oskar Archived 27 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine, bundestag.de; accessed 16 September 2015.
  6. ^ Meade, Geoff (2 December 1998). "Lafontaine and Brown clash over Euro tax veto". Birmingham Post. p. 6. Retrieved 5 June 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "FT.com / Europe – New leftwing alliance to challenge SPD". Archived from the original on 1 December 2005. Retrieved 13 June 2005.
  8. ^ Interview with Left Party Leader Oskar Lafontaine: 'We Want to Overthrow Capitalism' – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International
  9. ^ Forster, Jonas (30 November 2022). "Oskar Lafontaine rechnet mit Scholz ab: "Wir haben die dümmste Regierung Europas"". Der Westen (in German). Retrieved 8 December 2022.
  10. ^ Karnitschnig, Matthew (30 November 2022). "Europe's anti-American itch". Politico. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
  11. ^ Oskar Lafontaine tritt bei Wagenknecht-Partei ein. In: spiegel.de, 25 January 2024, retrieved 25 January 2024.
  12. ^ "Oskar Lafontaine Hauptredner bei BSW-Gründungsparteitag". deutschlandfunk.de (in German). 27 January 2024. Retrieved 6 August 2024.
  13. ^ "Rede von Oskar Lafontaine - 1. Parteitag des BSW | Berlin | 27 January 2024". Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht. 29 January 2024. Retrieved 6 August 2024.
  14. ^ "Writers warn about Linkspartei". signandsight. 1 July 2005. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
  15. ^ "Palast der sozialen Gerechtigkeit" (in German). Archived from the original on 2 December 2008.
  16. ^ Linkspartei: Der Charmeur und der Chef – Bücher – Feuilleton – FAZ.NET
  17. ^ Lafontaine, Oskar. "Wie Windräder die Umwelt zerstören". Faz.net.
  18. ^ "Energiewende: Panikmache von Oskar Lafontaine". 15 March 2017.
  1. ^ He had already been elected to the Bundestag for Saarbrücken I in the 1990 German federal election, but did not accept his mandate after the election. Michael Habermann was his successor on the party list.
[edit]
Political offices
Preceded by
Fritz Schuster
Mayor of Saarbrücken
1976–1985
Succeeded by
Hans-Jürgen Koebnick (SPD)
Preceded by
Werner Zeyer (CDU)
Minister-President of Saarland
1985–1998
Succeeded by
Preceded by German Minister of Finance
1998–1999
Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany
1995–1999
Succeeded by
Preceded by
New title
Co-Chairman of the Left Party
2007–2010
With Lothar Bisky
Succeeded by