Red Oskar rallies the loony left. (German Elections)

The Business Online ^ | August 7, 2005 | N/A

[lowbuck]

THE German election campaign was becoming predictable. Chancellor Gerhard Schršder's leftist administration was wheezing and puffing to a halt after a dismal few years of rising unemployment with few ideas about how to solve the country's economic malaise. The conservative candidate, Angela Merkel, seemed certain to romp to easy victory, although her insufficiently radical policies to turn around the economy have convinced few.

What the campaign needed was controversy and last week it got it. Former finance minister Oskar Lafontaine chose this moment for his political resurrection. The vociferous man from the Saar - whose strident political rhetoric and old-style socialist policies have earned him the nickname "Red" Oskar - has become the top candidate for a new German political entity called the Linkspartei,or the Left Party

[lowbuck]

Good analysis of the rise of the "new" Left Party and why it appeals to many of the voters here in Germany. Hopefully they will drain votes from the SPD/Greens and give the CDU/CSU an absolute majority. Then, maybe, reform can begin.

[Owl558]

Sounds like the classic spoiler candidate.

[ncountylee]

Lafontaine represents the old left - big government, high tax, a messianic commitment to the welfare state...

So long Gerhard.

[ncountylee]

Article is a very good read.

[RedMonqey]

Unemployment hovers near seven-decade highs despite Schr?der's 1998 campaign promise to cut the number in half-the ranks of German jobless are a still at 11%, the same rate as when Lafontaine bolted.

11% unemployment? If Bush EVER had numbers like that, the Democrats would tremble with orgasmic delight.

Yet this is the model system the libs want US to follow?