| Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | October 1, 1969 Oberstdorf |
| Political party | SPD |
Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel (né Schäfer, born 1 October 1969, Oberstdorf, Germany) is a German politician of the SPD.
He is currently the leader of the opposition SPD party bloc in the Hessian state parliament. He lost his bid for the office of minister-president of Hesse in the January 2009 Hessian state election, where he had challenged incumbent Roland Koch (CDU).[1]
Contents |
Schäfer-Gümbel was born to a West German soldier stationed in the far south of Bavaria in Oberstdorf. However, he grew up in the heart of Hesse in the city of Gießen. He briefly studied Agrarian Science at Justus-Liebig-University Gießen, after which he changed to Political Science. He graduated with a Master's degree in 1997, he took various minor political positions. He is married and has three children.
Schäfer-Gümbel was involved with the Social and Youth department of Gießen from the late 1990s. He became a local adviser to the SPD, a party which he had joined at the age of 17, and was also a local delegate of the SPD in the local government (Kreistag) in Gießen. He quickly moved up the ranks in the Hessian SPD party machine, and was a candidate on the SPD party list during the 2003 Landtag election. He gained a seat in 2003, and has been a member of the Hessian Landtag ever since. He was re-elected in the 2008 Landtag election and in the 2009 special election; however he was elected as part of the party list and not on a direct mandate, as he lost his local race to the CDU candidate.
In late 2008, following the Hessian political crisis and Andrea Ypsilanti's resignation, he became the SPD's party leader in Hesse and the SPD candidate for minister-president of Hesse. Due to the poor faring by the SPD in the 2009 special election, he lost position to the CDU's Roland Koch. He has been party leader of the opposition SPD since January 29, 2009.
Schäfer-Gümbel has openly supported the trotskyist Hands Off Venezuela campaign, and has spoken highly of Venezuelan premier Hugo Chavez.