Oskar Lafontaine

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]


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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".