Chairman of the DIE LINKE parliamentary group in the Saarland state parliament
Chairman of the DIE LINKE parliamentary group in the Saarland state parliamentOskar Lafontaine, born in 1943, has led the parliamentary group of the Left Party in the Saarland state parliament since September 2009 and is the party's top candidate in each case. From July 2010 to July 2014, he was also chairman of the party's International Commission. Previously, Lafontaine was parliamentary leader of the Left parliamentary group in the German Bundestag with Gregor Gysi and party leader of the newly formed DIE LINKE party alongside Lothar Bisky. His retirement from both political posts was due to cancer. Previously, in 2005, he had switched from the SPD to the newly founded Wahlalternative Arbeit & soziale Gerechtigkeit (WASG), which through his initiative entered into an electoral alliance with the PDS in June 2005.
In the course of his political life, he has been mayor of Saarbrücken, minister-president of Saarland, chairman of the SPD and federal finance minister. In March 1999, he resigned from all his previous political posts in the SPD because of criticism of Gerhard Schröder's Red-Green government course.
Thursday, 02. March 2017, 18:30 – 20:00 h
At the University of Zurich, Rämistrasse 71, 8006 Zurich, KOH-B-10
The EU is perceived by more and more people as an undemocratic and opaque power apparatus, the Brexit vote in the UK and the "No" to Renzi's constitutional reform in Italy are symptoms of this. The growing disillusionment is no wonder. Instead of an equalisation of living conditions at the upper level and the implementation of a European social model that shows clear barriers to Anglo-Saxon-style capitalism, the social gap in Europe is growing. The transnational structure of the EU increases the possibilities for wage and tax dumping. This unilaterally favours profit interests. If this continues, the EU will not be saved. Europe needs referendums now for a social and peaceful new start. Such a new start is not possible on the basis of the existing EU treaties.