Simone Oldenburg
OfficeDeputy Minister President of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Term start15 November 2021
1blanknameMinister President
1namedataManuela Schwesig
PredecessorHarry Glawe
Office 1Minister for Education of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Term start 115 November 2021
Predecessor 1Bettina Martin
Office 2Leader of The Left in the Landtag of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Term start 2September 2016
Deputy 2Jeannine Rösler
Jacqueline Bernhardt
Predecessor 2Helmut Holter
Office 3Deputy Leader of The Left
Term start 39 June 2018
Office 4Deputy Leader of The Left in the Landtag of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Term start 427 September 2011
Term end 4September 2016
Leader 4Helmut Holter
Successor 4Jeannine Rösler
Jacqueline Bernhardt
Office 5Member of the Landtag of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Term start 54 September 2011
Constituency 5List
Birth date22 March 1969 (age 57)
Birth nameSimone Oldenburg
Birth placeWismar, East Germany
PartyThe Left (2007–present)
PDS (before 2007)
Alma materLeipzig University

Simone Oldenburg (born 22 March 1969) is a German politician of The Left who has been Deputy Minister-President of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern since 2021. She has been a member of the Landtag of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern since 2011, and served as parliamentary leader of The Left since September 2016. Since June 2018, she has also been co-deputy leader of the federal party. Oldenburg was The Left's lead candidate for the 2021 state election.[1]

Early life and education

Simone Oldenburg was born in 1969 in Wismar. After graduating from high school there, she first completed a teaching degree in German and history at the Leipzig University of Education, then at the University of Leipzig in 1994. She then worked as a teacher at the regional school in Klütz.

Political career

Oldenburg has been a member of the municipal council of Gägelow since 2004, and since 2009 of the Nordwestmecklenburg district council. She was elected to the state Landtag in the 2011 state election, second on The Left party list. She also ran unsuccessfully in the direct mandate of Nordwestmecklenburg I. After the constituent session of parliament, she became deputy leader of the party's parliamentary group.[2]

She was re-elected in the 2016 state election. After the election, she was elected leader of The Left's parliamentary group. She was elected deputy chair of the federal Left party at a conference in June 2018.[3] In 2021, she was nominated as lead candidate for the upcoming state election.[1]

The Left won 9.9% of votes in the election, placing fourth. After the election, Oldenburg stated that the landslide victory of the Social Democratic Party called for a shift to the left in government.[4] On 13 October, the SPD entered coalition talks with the Left.[5] The parties successful agreed to a coalition government, and Oldenburg was sworn in as Deputy Minister-President and education minister on 15 November.[6]

References

  1. ^ "Oldenburg shall be top candidate of The Left". Norddeutscher Rundfunk. 28 January 2021.
  2. ^ "Holter leads left in Schwerin Castle". Norddeutscher Rundfunk. 27 September 2011. Archived 9 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ^ "Simone Oldenburg elected deputy party chairman in Leipzig". The Left Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. 9 June 2018.
  4. ^ "State election MV: Schwesig's SPD triumphs - CDU experiences debacle" (in German). Norddeutscher Rundfunk. 27 September 2021.
  5. ^ "Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: Schwesig wants to govern with the Left Party" (in German). tagesschau.de. Tagesschau. 13 October 2021. Retrieved 2021-10-14.
  6. ^ "Schwesig is re-elected as Minister-President of MV" (in German). Norddeutscher Rundfunk. 15 November 2021.