Lafontaine, Oskar (1943– )

German socialist politician, federal deputy chair of the Social Democrat Party (SPD) from 1987 and chair from 1995. Leader of the Saar regional branch of the SPD from 1977 and former mayor of Saarbrucken, he was nicknamed ‘Red Oskar’ because of his radical views on military and environmental issues. His attitude became more conservative once he had become minister-president of Saarland in 1985.

He was the SPD's unsuccessful candidate for chancellor in the first all-German general election in 1990, surviving a serious knife attack during the campaign, in which he warned of the economic cost of unification. In November 1995 he toppled Rudolph Scharping at the SPD conference to become party leader. He is opposed to the Maastricht Treaty on European union, viewing it as insufficiently federalist, but supports early German participation in the European single currency, and has indicated that he may seek to construct an SPD–Green–Reformed Communist ‘broad centre-left’ coalition to replace the dominant Christian Democrats. However, his policy prescription received setbacks in March 1996 and September 1997 as support for the SPD slumped in state polls.