Instant Expert's Kit - Oskar Lafontaine
Published 11 December 1998
Isn't he "The Most Dangerous Man In Europe"?
So we're reliably informed by the Sun. Germany's new finance minister, swept to power with the SPD chancellor Gerhard Schroder in October, has been getting all the best headlines to himself recently. His proposals to harmonise taxation policies across the EU have the UK press incandescent.
Is he upset?
"How much did Oskar pay them?" was apparently the response of the Schroder camp; all the British bile has made him tremendously popular at home.
The Schroder camp? Are you suggesting there's a split?
Not exactly. Schroder supports Lafontaine on the tax issue, but they have a complex political pairing. Both of them were Jusos - young socialists - singled out as promising stars by the now legendary Willy Brandt. While Schroder went into law and became a sort of Teutonic Blair, Lafontaine has always remained close to his working-class roots. Born and raised in Saarland on the French border, he was sent to a Jesuit school by his mother, who was widowed during the war. He won at everything, from football to philosophy, developing a staggering confidence to make up for his Napoleonic stature. After university, he dived straight into the small pond of Saarland SPD politics and became mayor of Saarbrucken in 1976, at the age of 32. His arguments with Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, a fellow Social Democrat, over nuclear power and withdrawal from Nato, shot him to national prominence (he took part in sit-ins) but helped destroy the party and let in Helmut Kohl. His pacifism captured the mood of the times; he was elected prime minister of Saarland.
Blimey. Bit of a leftie, then?
He would prefer "eco-socialist". He advocates reducing working hours "to share jobs out", but has enraged the unions by insisting that wages would have to be scaled down, too; he is a realistic left-winger. Opponents have also criticised his lifestyle of fine wines and wild parties. He shares Schroder's enthusiasm for marriage: Gerhard has been married four times and Oskar three. His current wife is Christa Muller, an economist who co-authored his latest book, Who's Afraid of Globalisation? His infectious style led him to run against Kohl for chancellor in 1990, but the Wall fell in on his political career. Reunification, Kohl's greatest triumph, ensured the SPD's greatest electoral defeat since 1957. An assassination attempt left Lafontaine shaken and depressed. He retired from the national stage but, colourful as ever, not from the national press - stories included a pay scandal and "The Red-Light District Affair".
Sounds fantastic!
Oh, it was. None of the allegations (an affair with a "high-class" prostitute, tax breaks to a local brothel, criminal links) was shown to be false. His career in tatters, he was asked to clarify his political position by an opponent at a party conference in 1994. His speech in reply was so brilliant that he was made head of the party; SPD members remain deeply loyal to him. Schroder's arrival was necessary to charm the cautious public in the 1998 election. Each provided what the other could not: it may have been Schroder's victory, but it was Lafontaine's party.
And now he's exacting his price?
Right. Part of this is control over European economic policy. He has always wanted to tackle the problem of business moving abroad to avoid tax. But if all countries were to have the same tax policy . . .
So he's dangerous because he's a genuine socialist internationalist?
And, as far as the British are concerned, with his Saarland background and fluent French, he is the Franco-German axis made flesh. Like that other pre-eminent European institution, he may just come to dominate the continent.
Duncan Parrish
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