These two men have a lot to work through: almost a quarter of a century ago, Gerhard Schröder and Oskar Lafontaine fell out. What followed were years of rivalry; There was even talk of male hostility. And now? Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder congratulated former SPD chairman Oskar Lafontaine on his upcoming 80th birthday. The two former social democratic greats had previously met moved back towards each other after their falling out in 1999, reports the star – during a long conversation in May.
“Dear Oskar,” writes Schröder in the magazine as a birthday greeting. “Once again you are faster than me. You will be 80 years old on September 16th this year, I won’t be until April 7th next year. I would like to congratulate you very much on your 80th birthday!” The former Chancellor continues: “Turning 80 years old is certainly a reason to let old frictions become history.” He ends the congratulations with “Best regards, your Gerd”.
This is what the relationship between Schröder and Lafontaine looked like in the good days.
(Photo: Dieter Bauer/imago images)
And so in the bad ones: Oskar Lafontaine in July 2005, then the WASG’s top candidate, giving a speech to delegates at the PDS state party conference in Saarbrücken.
(Photo: Becker&Bredel/imago)
After the red-green election victory in 1998, Lafontaine was finance minister under Chancellor Schröder and continued to be SPD party leader. At the beginning of 1999 he surprisingly resigned from all offices and then distanced himself more and more from his political home and his former companions. In 2005 he finally switched to the newly founded WASG party, which later merged with the PDS to form the Left Party, in which Lafontaine took on important functions.
Schröder, who is considered a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin and worked for Russian energy companies for years, has also faced harsh criticism within his own party since the start of the war of aggression against Ukraine for his lack of criticism of Putin. Despite his proximity to Russia, he is allowed to remain in the SPD. Applications for an appeal against a corresponding decision by the SPD arbitration commission in Hanover were rejected as inadmissible in the final party instance.
Loud star Schröder and Lafontaine met in May, and it wasn’t just about the old dispute, the “trials and tribulations,” as the congratulatory letter says, but also about current issues. Schröder and Lafontaine apparently discussed these topics discreetly in private, as it is said. Their wives were also present at the meeting itself, So-yeon Schröder-Kim and Sahra Wagenknecht. There is no word yet on whether such visits take place more often.