German politician
Thomas Lutze (born 23 August 1969) is a German politician who represents the Social Democratic Party of Germany. Previously, he was a member of the Left Party. Thomas Lutze has served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Saarland from 2009 to 2023, and has represented Berlin since October 2023.[1]
Life
Born in Elsterwerda, Brandenburg, Lutze grew up in Leipzig. In 1986, he completed his general secondary schooling, and three years later he completed his vocational training as a mechanical engineer in a foundry in Leipzig, which was linked to his A-levels. He then worked there as a repair fitter. In 1990 and 1991, he worked as an assembly fitter at a temporary employment agency. From 1991 to 1995 he studied design and production engineering at the University of Saarland. From 1995 to 2002, he was a regional office employee of the PDS parliamentary group in Saarbrücken. From 2003 to 2005, he retrained as an office administrator in a Saarbrücken furniture store. From 2005, he was a constituency employee of Oskar Lafontaine in Saarlouis. He became member of the bundestag after the 2009 German federal election.[2] He is a member of the Committee for Economics and Energy.[3] In his group he is spokesman for economic policy.[4]
In March 2021, Lutze became part of a political scandal.[5] Since September 2022 he is no longer the leader of The Left in the state of Saarland. He has been succeeded by Barbara Spaniol.[6]
In October 2023, Lutze resigned his membership from the Left Party and instead joined the Social Democratic Party (SPD), citing that "he no longer perceived the Left as a 'corrective' of socially undesirable developments". Lutze retained his seat in the Bundestag, but was rejected from the Saarland SPD, and instead was accepted into the Berlin SPD, specifically the Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain chapter.[7]
