The parliamentary group leader of the Left in the Saarland state parliament, Oskar Lafontaine, has announced that he does not want to enter the race with his own “List Lafontaine” in the state elections in Saarland on March 27th next year. “I’m not competing anymore”, he said the world. Already after the federal election at the end of September, Lafontaine (78) had declared that he would no longer run for the left in the Saarland election.
Lafontaine has been the parliamentary group leader of the Left in the Saar state parliament since 2009. In the course of his life he was Lord Mayor of Saarbrücken, Prime Minister of Saarland, Chairman of the SPD, Federal Minister of Finance and co-founder of the Left. In 2009, 2012 and 2017 the left always went into the state elections with Lafontaine as the top candidate – and each got double-digit voting results.
The reason why he is no longer running for the left in the state elections, Lafontaine gave the re-entry of state chief Thomas Lutze from the Saarland in the Bundestag. Lafontaine accuses Lutze of fraudulent activities in the acquisition of members. Lutze, who has been in the Bundestag since 2009, denies the allegations.
“Party leaders must bring the wings together”
In an interview with the world Lafontaine criticized the party leadership of the left in Berlin. “Party leaders must bring the wings together and develop a program that everyone accepts. Instead, the leaders see themselves as members of currents and have been fueling intra-party conflict for years,” he said.
The defeat in the federal election came as no surprise to him. “Some of those responsible for the election campaign – especially the federal managing director – do not know how to win elections,” he said. He also criticized the federal leadership for their actions in the vaccination debate and the handling of the party exclusion proceedings against him and his wife Sahra Wagenknecht.