Harald Ringstorff

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Dr. Harald Ringstorff (born September 25, 1939 in Wittenburg) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and minister-president of the federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. He has been leading a coalition government of SPD and Left Party (formerly PDS) since 1998. Now, he's leading a coaltion between SPD and CDU.

After his Abitur and military service, Ringstorff studied Chemistry in Rostock. He received his Ph.D. in 1969. Afterwards he worked as a chemist for the Rostock dockyards. From 1987 to 1990 he was director of the branch office of the VEB Kali-Chemie ("people's enterprise for potash chemistry").

In 1989 Ringstorff was a founding member of the Social Democratic Party in the GDR and a member of the freely elected Volkskammer of 1990. From 1990 to 2003 he was chairman of the SPD in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

Since 1990 Ringstorff has been a member of the Landtag of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania where he served as parliamentary leader of the SPD from 1990-1994 and 1996-1998. In between he was Minister for Economic and European Affairs and vice-minister-president in a coalition government with the CDU under minister-president Berndt Seite (CDU). Accompanied by controversial debates inside the party, the SPD agreed to a coalition with the PDS (now Left Party) after the elections of 1998 and Ringstorff was elected minister-president. His government was re-elected in 2002 and in 2006 but in year 2006, he decided to form a coalition with the CDU because they have a much more comfortable majority in the parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.