Luigi Pantisano, a Bundestag member for Linke, has announced his candidacy for the party chair. The 46-year-old from Waiblingen near Stuttgart said he was taking this step with “great humility.” According to Zeit, Pantisano can count on broad support within the party — several prominent Left Party figures have already backed him.
Pantisano is the son of Italian guest workers who came to Germany “to give their four children a better life,” as he writes on his website. A trained architect and urban planner, he campaigns against high rents, social cuts, racism, and for the working population. He has been in the Bundestag since last year, serving as deputy and transport policy spokesperson for his parliamentary group. He is married and has two children.
The outgoing co-chair Jan van Aken cited the toll of the federal election campaign as the reason for his withdrawal. “What we did was a drain on the body,” the 65-year-old told Zeit. The exhaustion has not subsided, and an illness is exacerbated by stress. Aken intends to keep his Bundestag seat until the end of the legislative term. The party congress in Potsdam in June is to decide on the succession.
Source: www.zeit.de
