Gesine Lötzsch (; born 7 August 1961) is a German politician of the

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

party '' Die Linke'' ("The Left"). In 2010, with

Klaus Ernst Klaus Ernst (born 1 November 1954 in Munich) is a left-wing German politician and was a leading member of the Labour and Social Justice Party and now The Left. The certified political economist has served as a member of The Left in the Bundest ...

, she was elected president of the party.

Biography

Born at

Berlin-Lichtenberg Lichtenberg () is a quarter (''Ortsteil'') of Berlin in the homonymous borough (''Bezirk'') of Lichtenberg. Until 2001 it was an autonomous district with the localities of Fennpfuhl, Rummelsburg, Friedrichsfelde and Karlshorst. History The hi ...

in what then was

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

, Lötzsch joined the

Socialist Unity Party of Germany The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (german: Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, ; SED, ), often known in English as the East German Communist Party, was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (GDR; East German ...

in 1984 and continued a member of its successor parties: the '' SED-PDS'' (1989–1990), the

PDS PD, P.D., or Pd may refer to: Arts and media * ''People's Democracy'' (newspaper), weekly organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) * ''The Plain Dealer'', a Cleveland, Ohio, US newspaper * Post Diaspora, a time frame in the ''Honorverse'' ...

, (1990–2005), ''Die Linkspartei.PDS'' (2005–2007), and from 2007, ''Die Linke''. In 2002, as a candidate of the Party of Democratic Socialism, Lötzsch was elected to the German

parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

(the ''

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Common ...

'') for the constituency

, which she continues to represent today. For her first term, she and

Petra Pau Petra Pau (born 9 August 1963) is a German politician of The Left. She has been a member of the Bundestag since 1998. Since 2006, she has also served as one of the Vice Presidents of the Bundestag, being the first member of her party to hold t ...

were the only PDS deputies in the chamber as the party failed to surpass the 5%

electoral threshold The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of the primary vote that a candidate or political party requires to achieve before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can ...

. In the 2021 German federal elections her winning her constituency again proved pivotal as her party again failed to surpass the electoral threshold but gained representation proportional to its vote share due to having won three constituencies (in addition to hers Berlin-Treptow-Köpenick won by Gregor Gysi and Leipzig II won by Sören Pellmann). Lötzsch has been criticized for suggesting that former employees of the '' Stasi'', the secret police of the former East German state, should be allowed to serve in parliaments and governments. The leader of the Alliance '90/The Greens, Claudia Roth, claimed that Gesine Lötzsch wants to "sweep the past under the carpet". Lötzsch's local party group in Berlin-Lichtenberg has invited former Stasi employees and informers to speak on several occasions with her support: for instance,

Erich Mielke Erich Fritz Emil Mielke (; 28 December 1907 – 21 May 2000) was a German communist official who served as head of the East German Ministry for State Security (''Ministerium für Staatsicherheit'' – MfS), better known as the Stasi, from 1957 u ...

's immediate deputy, Werner Grossmann, was invited as a speaker. Green member of parliament Wolfgang Wieland criticized her for appearing as a speaker before a revisionist association, the (tr. the Community Initiative for the Protection of the Social Rights). Gesine Lötzsch was married to Ronald Lötzsch (1931–2018), who in 2010 was revealed to have been an informer for the Stasi.

References

External links