The Heart Beats on the Left
Publisher: Polity Press
Published: October 1, 2000
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 248
ISBN-13: 9780745625812
Subjects: Biography: general; POLITICS & GOVERNMENT; Politics/International Relations; Lafontaine, Oskar,; Contemporary Politics - Germany; Political Science; Biography / Autobiography; Politicians; Germany; Political; Europe - Germany; GERMANY_POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT_1990-; Political Science / General; Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands; Political Process - Political Parties; 1943-; Biography
First sentence: I saw Willy Brandt for the first time in 1966, when I was a student and he was still Governing Mayor of Berlin.
Description: "This is the English-language edition of what has become one of the most controversial books in German politics today. Oskar Lafontaine was the leader of Germany's Social Democratic Party and finance minister in Gerhard Schroder's government until he suddenly resigned in March 1999. Lafontaine's left-wing commitments brought him into conflict with Schroder's endorsement of third way politics and with his attempt to remodel the SPD along the lines of Tony Blair's New Labour."

"The Heart Beats on the Left is the inside story of why Lafontaine broke with the SPD and Schroder's government, and why he believed that the social and political costs of Schroder's third way politics were too high. It is a merciless settling of scores in which the policies of Schroder and his government are subjected to scathing criticism. But it is also the most sustained criticism of third way politics from a prominent political figure who stands on the left."--Jacket.