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Oscar Lafontaine
Photo: Oliver Dietze / dpa
Three members of the Saarland State Arbitration Commission have declared themselves biased in the party expulsion proceedings against former Left Party leader Oskar Lafontaine.
This emerges from a letter from the committee that is available to SPIEGEL.
It states that the three commission members were exposed to "massive personal and written threats".
The procedure is now initially with the Federal Arbitration Commission because the Saarland Commission no longer has a quorum.
According to reports, the threats identified themselves as fanatical Lafontaine supporters.
»Oskar Lafontaine has done a lot for the Saarlinke.
Some probably overdo it with their support for him, «says the Saarland left chairman Thomas Lutze about the unusual event.
In the application for exclusion, Lafontaine is accused of party-damaging behavior because, before the federal election, he called for people not to vote for the left with the second vote.
Lafontaine wanted to prevent Lutze from entering the Bundestag again.
But the result was sufficient, the state chairman is again part of the left-wing faction in the Bundestag.
Lafontaine accuses Lutze of using unfair means to secure his post in the Saarland state association.
Corresponding investigations by the public prosecutor's office on suspicion of forgery in signatures on membership fees paid against Lutze were recently dropped.
A report exonerated Lutze.
The former state chairwoman Astrid Schramm is finally excluded from the left.
The member of parliament had opposed a corresponding decision by the state arbitration commission before the federal arbitration commission - but without success.
Schramm is considered a supporter of Lafontaine.
Despite the exclusion, she remains a member of one of the Saarland left-wing factions until further notice.
There are currently two factions with left-wing politicians in the Saarland state parliament.
State elections are due in the federal state at the end of March.
Lafontaine had announced that he no longer wanted to compete.
Lutze suggested that he leave the party.
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