Franz Müntefering

From Freepedia

Franz Müntefering (born January 16, 1940) is a German politician and chairman of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), the largest national party in today's Germany.

He was born in Neheim (now part of Arnsberg) and joined the SPD in 1966. He was a member of the Bundestag from 1975 to 1992 and again since 1998; from 1995 to 1998 he was a member of the Landtag (state parliament) of North Rhine-Westphalia.

He was Bundesgeschäftsführer (acting director) of the SPD from 1995 to 1998, was the first to hold the new post (17 have been created before) of general secretary from 1999 to 2002, and thereafter became leader of the SPD fraction in the Bundestag. In February 2004 he was designated to succeed Chancellor Gerhard Schröder as party chairman in March 2004.

In April 2005, Müntefering criticized the market economy of Germany and proposed more state involvement to promote economic justice. In this speech, he described private equity firms as "locusts". He subsequently published a "locust list" of companies, which he circulated within the SPD [1]. This began a debate which has dominated the national news, being the subject of front-page articles and covered on the main television news broadcasts nearly every day. Müntefering's suggestions have been criticized by employers and many economists, but have met with popular support (up to 75% in some opinion polls).

Preceded by: Gerhard Schröder

Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany 2004–

Succeeded by: Incumbent