Klaus Ernst | |
|---|---|
 Ernst in 2022 | |
| Member of the German Bundestag | |
| In office 18 October 2005 – 23 February 2025 | |
| Constituency | Bavaria |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1954-11-01)1 November 1954 (age 71) |
| Political party | BSW (2023–present) |
| Other political affiliations | SPD (1974–2004) WASG (2005–2007) The Left (2007–2023) |
Klaus Ernst (born 1 November 1954) is a German politician and was a leading member of theLabour and Social Justice Party, laterThe Left and switched toBSW in October 2023.
He ispolitical economist has served as a member of The Left in theBundestag since 2005, and as of 2010 had been co-chairing the party together withGesine Lötzsch.[1]
At the age of 15 he left his home and school because of his violent father. In 1970 he found work as an electronics technician and was elected youth representative and member of theworks council. In 1972 he became a member of theGerman Metalworkers' Union and in 1974 he took the chair of regionaltrade unions youth organization in Munich (until 1979) and became a member of theSocial Democratic Party (SPD). From 1979 to 1984 he studied political economy at the University of Hamburg.
After his studies he became a trade union secretary inStuttgart, responsible for organization, educational work and social plans. In 1995 Ernst was elected plenipotentiary of the IG Metall inSchweinfurt.
He took objection to theAgenda 2010, which he considered anti-social. Instead he pleaded for the establishment of a political alliance, an electoral alternative with regard to theGerman federal election in 2005. In the summer of 2004 the party executive decided his expulsion from the SPD.[1] After being kicked out of the SPD he would join the Wahlalternative Arbeit und Soziale Gerechtigkeit (WASD) which would merge with theParty For Democratic Socialism to form Die Linke in June 2007.[2] At a party meeting in June 2007 he was made deputy chairman ofDie Linke.
Ernst became chairman of the association "Wahlalternative Arbeit und soziale Gerechtigkeit e. V." which had been founded on 3 July 2004. Later he became leader of the new foundedElectoral Alternative for Labor and Social Justice, which emerged from the association.[1] In the 19th German Bundestag, Ernst was chairman of the Committee for Economic Affairs and Energy.[3]
In October 2023 he declared that he would quit Die Linke and followSahra Wagenknecht into her new party. Ernst rejected the demand to resign from the Bundestag mandate he had won through Die Linke.[4]
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Klaus is politically left wing. In January 2022, Ernst argued that Ukraine should maintain its neutral status rather than be admitted intoNATO.[5] He criticized haltingNord Stream 2.[6]
Media related toKlaus Ernst at Wikimedia Commons
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