24 years ago there was a falling out between the former chancellor and the Kremlin lobbyist Gerhard Schröder (79, SPD) and the former SPD leader and Federal Finance Minister Oskar Lafontaine (79).
Now there has apparently been reconciliation!
As “Stern” reports, the two met for a five-hour conversation at a secret meeting in Lafontaine’s house in Saarland in May.
► According to confidants, the wives of the two former intimate enemies were also present at the meeting in early summer, which has so far remained confidential. So-yeon Schröder-Kim and Sahra Wagenknecht, present.
Schröder and Lafontaine therefore temporarily withdrew in order to work through their history and their rift in private. Current questions were also discussed, it is said. Schröder and Lafontaine have spoken on the phone again since then.
The break between the then Chancellor Schröder and his Finance Minister Lafontaine in 1999 caused waves in the political landscape. Reconciliation seemed unthinkable until now.
During the first session of the newly elected German Bundestag (1998), the then-designate Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (l) and Oskar Lafontaine talk
The power struggle between the two dominant men at the top has kept the SPD in suspense since the 1998 federal election at the latest. The two appeared together in the election campaign, and after winning the election, a fight broke out over the direction of the party and also its chairmanship.
In the end, the Chancellor won. After 163 days of struggle in government, it was clear that Schröder would prevail. The last known correspondence between the two is dated the afternoon of March 11, 1999.
► A letter from Lafontaine reaches Schröder’s Bonn chancellor’s office by messenger. It said: “Dear Mr. Federal Chancellor, I hereby resign as Federal Minister of Finance. Kind regards, Oskar Lafontaine.” The day before, there was supposed to be quite a row at the cabinet meeting.
Lafontaine will be 80 years old on Saturday, and Schröder has now written a congratulatory message for “Stern”.
(yep)