Heinz Bierbaum (Triberg, 1946) is currently responsible for International Relations in the left-wing German party, Die Linke. He has previously served as the general secretary of the trade union IG Metall in the region of Frankfurt, regional MP in Saarland and as vice-president of Die Linke.
He speaks five European languages (German, English, Spanish, French and Italian) and, during his trade-union career, has maintained strong ties to the Italian and Catalan labour movements. He holds a doctorate in economics and worked as a university lecturer in his native Saarland, in the west of Germany.
During his speech, delivered to the conference’s 400 participants, he described his election as ‘an opportunity and a personal challenge which will require some work’, put stated his strong desire to ‘continue building and improving the European Left’ and to strengthen the position of working people across the continent.
The new leader of the European Left recognised that the party finds itself in a ‘difficult situation’ following the loss of seats in the European Parliament in 2019. This setback calls for a ‘critical evaluation of the future direction of the party.’
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