Lafontaine leaves the German Left, the party he founded

Berlin, 17 March Veteran German politician Oskar Lafontaine left the left, a political formation he established after separation from the social democratic class, which, in his opinion, is too lukewarm in his opinion because it is at odds with the line of the current party. “When we founded The Left, we wanted to offer an alternative to our policy of anxiety and social disparity. Currently, the Left has abandoned this goal.” Lafontaine said while announcing the decision in a statement. The 78-year-old Lafontaine believes that his party adopted a similar line “similar to the Green Party” and accuses him of abandoning the ideals of disarmament and peace politics under the influence of the war in Ukraine. The leadership of the left party openly condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine and demanded that President Vladimir Putin withdraw troops from the country. It does not support Prime Minister Olaf Scholz's decision to increase defense spending and modernize the army, but, in Lafontaine's opinion, did not strongly reject the rearmament line. Lafontein's retreat now follows the pressure of its own class on Sarah Wagenknecht, the leader of the most radical wing, who was publicly criticized by another co-founder of the party, Gregor Gysi. The Left was founded in 2005 as a binder of socio-democratic dissent led by Lafontaine and post-communism in eastern Germany led by Gysi. His abandonment from the left is the second sudden break in which Lafontaine starred. A few months after Gerhard Schröder's red-green government coalition was formed, in 1999, Lafontaine resigned as Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Minister of Finance in conflict with the then Prime Minister's centrist line. That abandonment shed tears on social democracy in Germany, followed by a work that did not come together among voters, the creation of an alternative for social justice, and finally Gysi's merger with post-communism. gc/alf