Dieter Spöri

Dieter Spöri (right) with his successor as EBD President Rainer Wend (center) and State Minister Michael Georg Link (left) 2012

Dieter Spöri (born May 15, 1943 in Stuttgart ) is a German SPD politician . From 1992 to 1996 he was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economics of the State of Baden-Württemberg . From 2006 to 2012 he was President of the European Movement Germany Network .

Studies and first professional activity

Spöri studied economics in Tübingen, where he was, along with Rudolf Hickel , one of the leading members of the student movement from 1968. After graduating with a degree in economics, Spöri was, among other things, deputy head of the Institute for Southwest German Economic Research in Stuttgart from 1970 to 1974 and until 1975 Lecturer for economic policy at the University of Stuttgart. Spöri was born in 1973 at the University of Konstanz Dr. rer. soc. PhD. His dissertation was entitled Regional Economic Policy and Spatial Distribution of Income: a critical inventory of regional policy using the example of Baden-Württemberg .

Political party

Spöri joined the SPD in 1970, where he was a member of the state executive in Baden-Württemberg from 1975 to 1998 and of the federal executive from 1988 to 1998. Spöri ran a total of three times as the top candidate of the SPD in Baden-Württemberg for the office of Prime Minister . In the Baden-Württemberg state elections in 1988 , he ran against Prime Minister Lothar Späth . The result of the election did not result in any major changes: the CDU was able to maintain its absolute majority in mandates with a share of 49.1 percent of the votes and losses of 2.9 percentage points. In contrast, the SPD stagnated with a result of 32.0 percent of the vote and a minimal loss of 0.4 percentage points. In the state elections in 1992 , Spöri competed against Erwin Teufel . In this election, both mainstream parties suffered a significant loss of votes (CDU: 39.6%, a loss of 9.5 percentage points; SPD: 29.4% of the votes, minus 2.6 percentage points). Due to the entry of the Republicans into the state parliament , however, both parties formed a coalition in which Spöri became deputy prime minister and economics minister of the grand coalition under Erwin Teufel. After the SPD, with its third top candidacy in the state elections in 1996, achieved its worst result since the state was founded with 25.1 percent and Erwin Teufel terminated the grand coalition in favor of a coalition with the FDP that was now possible, Spöri withdrew from politics, brings himself but again and again in the discussion about the future of his party. In 2010, Spöri and other SPD politicians called for a referendum on the Stuttgart 21 project to rebuild the main train station.

Mandates and public offices

From 1976 to 1988 Spöri was a member of the Bundestag. Here he was, among other things, tax policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group from 1984 to 1988 and chairman of the finance committee of the German parliament. In his first top candidacy in 1988, Spöri won the direct mandate in the Heilbronn constituency and moved from the Bundestag to the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg . Here he was also elected parliamentary group leader and thus opposition leader. After his second top candidacy in 1992, Spöri became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economics. He remained in this office until 1996. Among other things, he was chairman of the German conference of economics ministers from 1993 to 1994. After leaving the ministerial office, he was a member of the state parliament with a second mandate in the Heilbronn constituency until February 1997. Then he resigned his mandate, which was then taken by MP Mario Capezzuto .

According to party politics

From 1999 to 2008 Spöri was the authorized representative for Daimler AG in Berlin with the federal government, based in Haus Huth on Potsdamer Platz . Until 2007 he was a member of the supervisory board of the software group SAP . Since September 1, 2008, Dieter Spöri has been the general representative and partner of the HR consultancy PMCi. Since leaving Daimler, Spöri has been making increasingly critical comments on current European and German economic policy as well as party financing. Dieter Spöri has been one of the editors of the blog “Blog der Republik” since June 2014.

European politics

During his time as Baden-Württemberg Minister of Economic Affairs , Dieter Spöri took an active part in European political discussions. He was particularly in focus in the years 1994–1996 due to his criticism of what he saw as the premature introduction of the euro . Above all, Spöri advocated strict adherence to the Maastricht convergence criteria , which at the given time would have resulted in a kind of “mini-currency union between Germany and France”. He viewed this variant, however, as a great danger for German jobs, which could disappear due to the inevitably further devalued competition from countries outside the monetary union. He therefore proposed postponing the introduction by five years in order to give countries such as Italy or Spain time for necessary economic and political harmonization processes.

In September 2011, Dieter Spöri gave an interview to the news portal EurActiv , in which he not only responded to the criticisms of the monetary union raised in the mid-1990s, but also spoke out decisively against domestic political electoral “Greece bashing”: “You have to know that Such a bankruptcy, with which some ordinary sailors are now playing, is a high-risk adventure with a completely uncertain outcome, in which Portugal, Spain, Italy and others could also be drawn into the vortex of the crisis. Some are playing with fire. "

From June 2006 to July 2012 Spöri was President of the Network European Movement Germany , succeeding former EU Commissioner Monika Wulf-Mathies (re-election in 2008 and 2010). In July 2012, after the maximum possible three terms of office, Spöri was replaced as President by Rainer Wend and appointed Honorary President of the European Movement Germany.

Web links

• Dieter Spöri at The European
• FAZ: The chief lobbyists of the economy
• Europe more drama - more escalation Interview euractiv.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.stern.de/politik/deutschland/spd-krise-schoenreden-hilft-nicht-1674867.html
2. ↑ http://www.bild.de/BILD/regional/stuttgart/dpa/2010/09/07/spdpromis-forder-volksentscheid-zu-stuttgart.html
3. ↑ PMCi press release of June 10, 2008 ( Memento of the original of December 4, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , see also Autokiste.de: Spöri ends Daimler activities 
4. ↑ cf. Steinbrück acts deeply contradicting Stern December 4, 2008 and Dr. Spöri at the Nordakademie - How successful is the EU model? ( Memento of the original from May 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. or Spöri calls for German support for Sarkozy's initiative for a European economic government or loss of reality in the European crisis debate - Spöri: Enormes inflation potential EurActiv.de 29 December 2009 or support actions can tear the euro, EurActiv.de: 4 March 2010 or - Spöri: Helmut Kohl's introduction of the euro and a new political lie, Euractiv September 7, 2012 
5. ↑ Finally stop cheating! Der Stern, March 1, 2010 theeuropean.de April 24, 2011: Outrage!
6. ^ Blog der Republik , Daniel Spöri
7. ↑ Spöri, Dieter: Too early start destroys numerous jobs . In: Leipziger Volkszeitung . January 26, 1996.
8. ↑ Focus: Incredible currency lie . February 26, 1996.
9. ↑ Press release Ministry of Economic Affairs Baden-Württemberg: Spöri: Monetary union must be postponed by five years . November 1, 1995.
10. ↑ Euro crisis: playing with fire. EurActiv, 19 September 2011, accessed 26 September 2011 . 
11. ↑ cf. June 24, 2008 EBD confirms Spöri and [1]  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
12. ↑ Dr. Rainer Wend is the new President of the EBD - General Assembly sets course until the 2013 Bundestag election. European Movement Germany, July 4, 2012, accessed on July 4, 2012 .