Thomas Händel (born 27 August 1953) is a German politician and

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

from

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. He is a member of The Left, part of the

European United Left–Nordic Green Left The Left in the European Parliament (The Left) is a left-wing political group of the European Parliament established in 1995. Prior to January 2021 it was named the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (, GUE/NGL). The group is mainly compos ...

. He was appointed Chair of the European Parliament Employment and Social Affairs Committee in July 2014.Profile
European Parliament Händel began training as an electrician at

Grundig Grundig ( , , ) is a Turkish home appliances and consumer electronics brand. It is owned by Arçelik A.Ş., the white goods (major appliance) manufacturer of Turkish conglomerate Koç Holding. Originally a German consumer electronics comp ...

Fürth Fürth (; East Franconian German, East Franconian: ; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in northern Bavaria, Germany, in the administrative division (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Middle Franconia. It is the Franconia#Towns and cities, s ...

in 1970, which is also when he joined the

IG Metall IG Metall (; IGM; German: , "Industrial Union of Metalworkers'") is the dominant metalworkers' union in Germany, making it the country's largest union as well as Europe's largest industrial union. Analysts of German labor relations consider i ...

trade union. He subsequently attended the academy of work at

Goethe University Frankfurt Goethe University Frankfurt () is a public research university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealthy and active liberal citizenry of Frankfurt ...

, after which he advanced through IG Metall, becoming the managing director of the Fürth branch in 1987 and a member of the national advisory board in 1991. In March 2004, along with

Klaus Ernst Klaus Ernst (born 1 November 1954) is a German politician and was a leading member of the Labour and Social Justice Party, later The Left and switched to BSW in October 2023. He is political economist has served as a member of The Left in ...

, Anny Heike, Gerd Lobodda, Günther Schachner, Herbert Schui and Peter Vetter, Händel called for the creation of the Initiative Arbeit und soziale Gerechtigkeit, a group opposed to the

neoliberal Neoliberalism is a political and economic ideology that advocates for free-market capitalism, which became dominant in policy-making from the late 20th century onward. The term has multiple, competing definitions, and is most often used pej ...

policies of the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together w ...

Government. By June the group had been expelled from the party and had merged with another organisation, Wahlalternative, to form

Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative (, WASG) was a left-wing German political party founded in 2005 by activists disenchanted with the ruling Red-Green coalition government. On 16 June 2007, WASG merged with Party of Democr ...

, or the WASG. Händel was one of the party's four executive board members and acted as treasurer. After the merger of the WASG and the Party of Democratic Socialism to form the Left party in 2007, Händel became vice-chairman of the

Rosa Luxemburg Foundation The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (''German: Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung e.V.; Abbreviation: RLS''), named in recognition of Rosa Luxemburg, and occasionally referred to as ''Rosa-Lux'', is a transnational alternative policy lobby group and educational ...

. He was elected to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

in 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Handel, Thomas 1953 births Living people Politicians from Nuremberg Die Linke MEPs MEPs for Germany 2009–2014 Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative politicians German trade unionists MEPs for Germany 2014–2019 Expelled members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany