Oskar Lafontaine, one of Germany's prominent social democratic politicians, has left Die Linke, the party he co-founded in 2007.
“I wanted there to be a left-wing alternative to the politics of social insecurity and inequality on the political spectrum, which is why I co-founded Die Linke. Today's left has given up that claim” the 78-year-old politician announced on Thursday in Saarbrücken.
According to Lafontaine, the background is “the gradual change in the political profile of the left” from 2015. It has become a party “in which the interests of employees and pensioners and a foreign policy based on international law and peace are no longer the focus”.