In 1995 Oskar Lafontaine (SPD) had taken the presidency of his party, the German Social Democrats, with a charming speech on the traditional values of Social Democracy, on the favors of Keynesian economic and social security policy. Though then someone doubted, it showed that he really meant the things he had said on that tumultuous congress of Mannheim where he overthrew his predecessor Rudolf Scharping (SPD). Yet Lafontaine didn't become the party's candidate for the chancellor's office in 1998, because one of his party mates, Gerhard Schröder from Lower Saxony did much better in both, opinion polls and regional elections.
Thus, after Schröder's victory in October last year, Lafontaine became only finance minister. No need for resignation, he must have thought by himself, starting at once his campaign for what he felt should be a Social Democratic economic and financial policy nowadays. Yet the conditions had deeply changed since the party's last period in command, 1969-82, and very few seemed to be really fond of Lafontaine's new crusade: few of the observers in Germany, very few among his finance minister colleagues in Europe, almost nobody in international high finance circles and, last but not least, not even his own chancellor.
Instead of arguing and fighting in order to promote his ideas, Lafontaine soon permitted himself even some embarrassing gaffes. When Europe's finance ministers met on New Year's Eve to launch the Monetary Union and raise their glasses at the success of the new Euro, to their great irritation the most important of their round, the German Lafontaine, didn't even go there because on holiday in the Caribbean Sea. Irritation was even bigger, since Lafontaine had clearly damaged the Euro's start with his continuous pressure on on the central bankers in Frankfurt to lower their tax rates.
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