Michael Schlecht (born 1951 inHildesheim) is a German politician. From 2009 to 2017, he served as a member of theBundestag for theLeft Party.
Michael Schlecht was born on 25 June inHildesheim,Lower Saxony and grew up inHamburg. After graduating from secondary school (Mittleren Reife) in 1966, he trained as a printer and didZivildienst. He moved toWest Berlin in 1973, where he studied to become a printing engineer until 1980. He also studied economics at theFree University of Berlin and worked as a publisher. From 1980, he was employed by the IG Druck und Papier trade union in Stuttgart -IG Medien from 1989. In 2001, he became Chief Economist atver.di in Berlin.[1][2]
From 1980 to 1982, Schlecht participated in an attempt to found a left-wing party to the left of the center-leftSocial Democratic Party (SPD) with theDemocratic Socialists, but this failed. He then returned to the SPD in 1982, but left in 2005 in opposition to the "Agenda 2010" policy. Schlecht is known as an opponent of theUniversal basic income and instead supports a "means-tested basic income".[3] He then supported theWASG, that later merged with the East GermanParty of Democratic Socialism to create theLeft Party in 2008. In the following years, he was elected into the latter party's executive board. In theFederal Elections of 2009 and2013, he candidated for the electoral district ofMannheim, both times scoring fourth with 12.520 (9.5%) and 8.951 (6.6%) votes, respectively. Nevertheless, he was given a mandate through theState List.[4][5][6][2]
In the Bundestag, he contributed to the Committee on Technology and Economy.[2]
Schlecht is married and has two children.[2]
