biography
| name: |
Lafontaine, Oskar
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| |
nicknames Red Oskar and Ayatollah of the Saarland
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pronunciation:
[lafonten]
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1943– )
|
| biography:
| West German politician, born in Saarlouis, SW Germany. He studied at Bonn University, became leader of the Saar regional branch of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in 1977, and served as Mayor of Saarbrücken (1976–85). He was elected as minister-president of the Saarland State Assembly in 1985, and in 1987 was appointed a deputy chairman of the SPD's federal organization and chairman in 1995. In 1999 he resigned from both the party chairmanship and also the position of finance minister in the SDP–Green coalition government which had been elected in 1998. His resignation followed division within the SDP over the direction of economic policy. His nicknames come from his early reputation for radicalism. |
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