HE IS Germany's former left-wing finance minister, whom the Sunonce dubbed "Europe's most dangerous man". She is a hard-left socialist with a take-no-prisoners style of politics.
Now, after two years of speculation, Left Party politician Oskar Lafontaine (68) has announced that he has left his third wife of 18 years to start a relationship with Sahra Wagenknecht (42).
Dubbed “Red Sahra” for her defence of the Berlin Wall and regret at the end of East Germany, Ms Wagenknecht is also married. Her husband since 1997 is Ralph Thomas Niemeyer, a German filmmaker who lives near Killaloe, Co Clare.
Mr Lafontaine announced his news at the end of a speech to Left Party delegates in his hometown of Saarbrücken. Ms Wagenknecht has declined to comment.
The Left Party has been struggling since Mr Lafontaine departed as leader last year to undergo cancer treatment. Now with a clean bill of health, he is reportedly anxious to get back to the fray. But Ms Wagenknecht, long seen as Mr Lafontaine’s protege, was said to be weighing her options for leading the party.
Niemeyer took to his blog yesterday to say he was not embittered by the news. “It is only honest and decent that Sahra has made public our separation, which goes back some time and was completely consensual. There was and is no secrecy,” he wrote, saying he felt a “connection” to Mr Lafontaine.
“If, however, she had told me she was smitten with Helmut Kohl, I would have shot myself.”