Wolfgang Löscher
Wolfgang Löscher | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait of Wolfgang Löscher | |
| 38th Premier of Werania | |
| In office 16 May 1991 – 4 October 1998 | |
| Monarch | Charlotte II |
| Preceded by | Ludolf Ostermann |
| Succeeded by | Heinrich Schuberth |
| Federal Chairman of the Social Democratic Radical Party of Werania | |
| In office 16 May 1993 – 18 May 1999 | |
| Preceded by | Ludolf Ostermann |
| Succeeded by | Rasa Šimonytė |
| Lord Mayor of Westbrücken | |
| In office 17 June 1985 – 16 May 1993 | |
| Preceded by | TBA |
| Succeeded by | TBA |
| Personal details | |
| Born | September 14, 1942 Westbrücken, Werania |
| Political party | SRPO |
| Spouse(s) | Saskia Stegnar (1960-1997) Meng Peiyun (2000-present) |
| Children | 6 |
Other offices held
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Wolfgang Walter Löscher (born September 14 1942) is a Weranian social democratic politician. He served as the Premier of Werania from May 1993 to his defeat in the 1999 election and previously served as the Lord Mayor of Westbrücken from 1985 to 1993. Löscher is a long running member of the Social Democratic Radical Party of Werania and its predecessor.
Born in a working class family in Westbrücken Löscher worked as a trade unionist representative in the steel industry. He was elected to the Westbrücken Abgeordnetenhaus for the Social Democratic party in 1977, where he was appointed as the city's finance minister in 1981. In 1985 he became the Lord Mayor of Westbrücken maintaining a coalition with the Weranic Section of the Workers' International winning re-elections in 1985 and 1989.
As Lord Mayor of Westbrücken Löscher carved a prominent role for himself on the national stage. Considered to be part of the "mainstream social democrats" of the party in the SRPO Löscher initially was a supporter of Chancellor Ludolf Ostermann but broke with him to support a group of reformist SRPO members from the younger generations of the party which had coalesced around the powerful Minister of Finance and the Economy Lothar Holzmeister. After Holzmeister was fired from the government this group began to actively agitate against the Ostermann government, calling for the neoliberal economic reforms to be accelerated. Holzmeister's unsuccessful challenge to Ostermann in 1991 revealed the limits of the reformists support and in 1993 they chose the more moderate Löscher to challenge Ostermann at the next federal congress. Ostermann reacted by resigning allowing Löscher to be elected leader uncontested.
Intending to breath fresh life into a flagging government Löscher led the government of the SRPO and the Modern Centre Party to be comfortably re-elected with the SRPO losing only a small proportion of seats. In his 1993-1995 term Löscher implemented some policies that continued the process of economic reform supporting privatisation of public assets and further deregulation of the economy. He also however implemented traditional left-wing policies in welfare, education and healthcare partially repealing some of the market-reforms implemented in those sectors. Löscher also focused on promoting environmentalism and Euclean-Coian relations.
The SRPO-PMZ government was widely expected to lose the 1995 election thanks to the resurgent National Consolidation Party on the right and the OSAI on the left under a new democratic socialist leadership. This led NKP leader Edmund Blaurock to propose a series of right-wing policies prior to the election, believing despite their unpopularity that victory against the unpopular government would be relatively easy. Löscher as a result embarked on a vigorous campaign that saw the SRPO's polling numbers substantially using negative campaigning to undermine Blaurock's message; as a result the SRPO in 1995 gained the same amount seats of the NKP and formed an unprecedented coalition of the SRPO, OSAI and Greens.
The new government tacked further to the left implementing social-democratic policies and focusing on political and social reforms. However Löscher's attempts at triangulation, fatigue after over 16 years in government and the delicate ideological composition of the governing coalition meant that Löscher faced constant division from both the right and left of his party. In 1998 his old political patron Holzmeister launched an attempted leadership challenge against him; like Ostermann seven years earlier Löscher only won the challenge with the support of the SRPO's left who he had previously been opposed to. In 1999 the government was defeated by the NKP at the polls with Löscher retiring shortly afterwards.
Since leaving politics Löscher works as an adviser to the Shangean government on economic matters, a role that has garnered criticism from his peers. He also has advised parties within the Socialist Alternative for Euclea on public relations.
Löscher remains a controversial premier. Whilst lauded for his social reforms his government has been criticised for political opportunism. On foreign and economic affairs his legacy is especially mixed - whilst his government oversaw seven years of strong economic growth it has been criticised on the left for implementing overly-neoliberal policies whilst on the right bemoaned for failing to undertake more innovative economic reform. In foreign policy Löscher's promotion of close ties with Coian nations such as Shangea and Senria was controversial with supporters claiming it to be a shrewd, forward thinking policy whilst others see it as having appeased authoritarian or illiberal governments.
