Gesine Lötzsch

Who is Gesine Lötzsch?

Gesine Lötzsch [geˈsinə løːtʃ] is a German politician of the left-wing party Die Linke. In 2010, with Klaus Ernst, she was elected president of the party.

Born at Berlin-Lichtenberg in what then was East Germany, Lötzsch joined the Socialist Unity Party of Germany in 1984 and continued a member of its successor parties: the SED-PDS, the PDS, Die Linkspartei.PDS, and from 2007, Die Linke. In 2002, as a candidate of the Party of Democratic Socialism, Lötzsch was elected to the German parliament for Berlin Lichtenberg, which she continues to represent today. For her first term, she and Petra Pau were the only PDS deputies in the chamber.

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'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 Initiativgemeinschaft zum Schutz der sozialen Rechte.