Oscar Lafontaine, German politician

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:45

Lafontaine Oskar, who was born on September 16, 1943 in Saarlouis, is a leftist German politician, former chairman of the Social Democratic Party and one of the founders of the new Die Linke left party.

Education and family

Oscar Lafontaine studied physics at the University of Bonn and Saarland from 1962 to 1969. He devoted his thesis to the growth of single crystals of barium titanate.

By religion, Oscar Lafontaine, whose personal life has been repeatedly discussed in the press, considers himself a Catholic. He was married to Christa Muller, who leads a campaign against genital mutilation in Africa. In 1997 they had a son, Carl Maurice.

In 2014, information appeared in the media about a secret marriage between two well-known German political figures. The heroes of the publication were Sarah Wagenknecht and La Fontaine Oscar.

Career in the Saarland

Lafontaine began his political career in local government when he became mayor of Saarbrücken. He gained notoriety when he opposed politicsChancellor Helmut Schmidt, who supported NATO plans to install Pershing II missiles in Germany.

From 1985 to 1998 he was Prime Minister of the Saarland. As prime minister, La Fontaine tried to support the traditional steel and coal industries with subsidies. In 1992-1993 he was also the chairman of the Bundesrat. Some critics already at that time believed that La Fontaine, like no other, manages to exacerbate conflict situations. However, this did not prevent him from being nominated for the post of chancellor by the SPD in the 1990 Bundestag elections.

Chancellor Candidate

In the 1990 German federal election, La Fontaine was the SPD candidate for chancellor. The party lost the election because it supported the CDU, which was in power at the time of German reunification and was therefore held responsible for the resulting problems. During the election campaign, after a speech in Cologne, La Fontaine was attacked with a knife by a mentally ill woman named Adelgaid Streidel. She damaged Lafontaine's carotid artery and he remained in critical condition for several days.

Return to politics

In 1995, at a party meeting in Mannheim, Lafontaine was elected chairman of the SPD, replacing Rudolf Scharping in this post. It is believed that it is he who is responsible for the turn of the SPD against Helmut Kohl and his CDU party, although previously these political associations were activelycooperated. Lafontaine said that any help provided to Kolya would only help the CDU stay in power.

This idea helped the SPD pull ahead in the September 1998 opinion polls. La Fontaine was appointed Federal Minister of Finance in the first government of Gerhard Schröder.

Finance Minister

During his short tenure as finance minister, Lafontaine was often attacked by "Eurosceptics" from the UK. The main reason for this was Lafontaine's desire to make taxes the same throughout the European Union. This may have resulted in some tax increases in the UK.

On March 11, 1999, he resigned from all his government and party positions, saying that he did not receive any help from other cabinet ministers. Later, the newspaper Bild-Zeitung, which is considered quite conservative, published an article with harsh remarks about Angela Merkel's government. The author was Oscar Lafontaine, whose photo was printed on the front page.

Party of the Left

On May 24, 2005, Lafontaine left the ranks of the SPDH. On June 10, he announced his intention to run as the lead candidate for Die Linkspartei (PDS), a coalition of the Electoral Alternative for Labor and Social Justice (WASG) based in the western states of Germany and the Democratic PartySocialism (PDS), which was the direct successor of the East German Communist Party.

Lafontaine joined the WASG on June 18, 2005, and on the same day was chosen as the candidate to head their list in the federal elections in North Rhine-Westphalia. He also ran for the Saarbrücken constituency but lost. Nevertheless, the result of the left party in the Saar was better than in other federal states in the west of Germany.

January 23, 2010 at the party meeting of the "Left" Oscar Lafontaine announced his resignation from the post of chairman of the party and the refusal of the position of deputy in the federal parliament. The reason was he alth problems: a few months earlier, Lafontaine was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and in November he lay down on the operating table. Although the operation was successful, Lafontaine resigned from all posts, leaving behind only the position of leader of the "Left" faction in the Saar Landtag. Lafontaine Oscar, whose biography as a politician began in the Saarland, returned to where his bright and controversial political career started back in 1970.

Criticism of La Fontaine

La Fontaine's article in the magazine Der Spiegel, dedicated to Erich Honecker, a statesman and party leader of the GDR, who was a native of the state of Saar, was criticized by many people who felt that it emphasized some of the good deeds done by Honecker and ignored everything bad.

In the late 80s and early 90syears, Lafontaine lost the support of some leftists who decided that he was on the side of business, and also because of his calls to reduce the influx of migrants from Eastern Europe and political asylum seekers.