Peter Mandelson

Peter Mandelson at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions of the World Economic Forum in Tianjin (2008)

Peter Benjamin Mandelson Baron Mandelson, [ piːtə bɛndʒəmɪn mændəlsən ] (* 21st October 1953 in London ) is a British politician of the Labor Party . He is considered one of the main architects in the party's change to New Labor .

Career

Mandelson was born as the second son of George Tony Mandelson, a Jewish emigrant from Poland . His father was an advertising editor for the London-based The Jewish Chronicle . His mother, Mary Mandelson, was the daughter of Herbert Morrison (1888–1965), a well-known Labor Party politician and multiple minister in Labor governments, most recently as foreign minister. The descent from this grandfather accompanied him through his political life and occasionally paved the way for his political career. The family name 'Mandelson' is the anglicized form of the German or Yiddish 'Mendelssohn'.

In protest against the support of the Vietnam War by the Labor Party Mandelson for some time the British closed Young Communist League of the Communist Party of Great Britain on. After attending Hendon County Grammar School from 1965 to 1972, Mandelson stayed in Tanzania from 1972/73 , where he a. a. taught in a village school and helped out in a small hospital.

From 1973 to 1976 he studied philosophy, politics and economics at St. Catherine's College, Oxford . In 1977 he joined the British Youth Council , which he chaired from 1977 to 1980. In this capacity he participated in 1978 as a member of the British delegation, together with Arthur Scargill and several later ministerial colleagues at the World Youth Festival in Havana .

Careers in the UK

From 1979 to 1982 Mandelson was a member of the London Borough of Lambeth Council. He then worked as a television journalist for London Weekend Television until 1985 .

On September 24, 1985 he was press officer and director of campaigns ( Director of Campaigns and Communications ) of the Labor Party. At the time, Neil Kinnock was chairman of the Labor Party. He held this position until he was put up as a Labor Party candidate for the Hartlepool constituency in 1990. He got this seat in the parliamentary elections of 1992. In the meantime he worked for a consulting firm.

Mandelson was one of Tony Blair's allies in his election as party chairman in 1994. He was campaign leader for the Labor Party in the 1997 general election. He then became a minister without portfolio in the Blair administration, where he was responsible for the Millennium Dome .

In 1998 he became Minister for Trade and Industry.

resignation

In 1998, Mandelson had to resign because of a credit scandal. Mandelson had received an interest-free £ 373,000 home loan from a wealthy MP. The political scientist Colin Crouch later named this point in time as the date that finally ushered in the post-democratic age , in which in a democracy private and public interests are no longer separated.

Later activities

Together with the German Chancellery Minister Bodo Hombach , Mandelson drew up the Blair Schröder paper , with which the course of the British Labor Party was affirmed. The paper was published on June 8, 1999.

In October 1999 he returned to the cabinet to replace Mo Mowlam as Minister for Northern Ireland , but had to resign again in 2001 over an affair over the British citizenship of an Indian whose family had played an important role in the financing of the Millennium Dome.

On October 3, 2008, Mandelson returned to government as Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills as part of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's cabinet reshuffle . On October 13, 2008, Mandelson was ennobled as a life peer at the proposal of the Prime Minister , whereby he was given the title of Baron Mandelson , of Foy in the County of Herefordshire and of Hartlepool in the County of Durham, and became a member of the House of Lords .

Since a cabinet reshuffle on June 5, 2009, Mandelson has been Lord President of the Council and holds the honorary title of First Secretary of State .

Careers in the EU

In 2004 Mandelson was sent to the European Commission by Tony Blair . José Manuel Barroso , the Commission President, appointed him Trade Commissioner ; in this role he was responsible for European trade policy until his return to the UK government in 2008 .

Political positions

Within the EU institutions, Mandelson campaigns against protectionism and for free trade . This led to a dispute with Nicolas Sarkozy when he was presiding over the Council of the European Union . Mandelson clearly criticized the speech given by British Prime Minister David Cameron on January 23, 2013, in which he spoke out in favor of renegotiating the British EU treaties and a referendum on Britain's EU membership. The EU is "not a kind of cafeteria in which everyone can go in with a tray and take what they want". This attitude towards the EU does not correspond to what the European partners expected and also does not correspond to the premises under which Great Britain became an EU member at the time.

Mandelson is a proponent of the practice of three strikes and a harsher punishment against illegal file sharing .

Mandelson is a successful spin doctor and exerted a great deal of behind-the-scenes influence on Labor Party's politics. His role in the background and his talent for political maneuvers earned him the nickname The Prince of Darkness (The Prince of Darkness), since his elevation to the nobility, he is also called The Dark Lord (The Dark Lord). In 1999 and 2009, Mandelson took part in Bilderberg conferences upon invitation .

Private

In 2000, Mandelson publicly confessed to his relationship with Reinaldo Avila da Silva by allowing photos of himself with his partner. According to a UK poll in 2005, he was one of the most influential homosexual men in Europe.

In July 2010, Mandelson published his memoir called The Third Man , which caused considerable uproar and anger in the Labor Party .

literature

• Donald Macintyre: Mandelson and the Making of New Labor , HarperCollins Publishers, London 2000 (1999), ISBN 0-00-653062-1 .

Web links

Commons : Peter Mandelson  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Peter Mandelson in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Donald Macintyre, Mandelson and the Making of New Labor , p. 520, u. v. a.
2. ↑ ^{a b} BBC News website : Profile: Peter Mandelson (October 3, 2008, English), last accessed on September 30, 2010
3. ↑ Macintyre, pp. 31-39
4. ^ Macintyre, pp. Xvii
5. ↑ Macintyre, pp. 58-61
6. ^ Brian Wilson: Revolution revisited in: The Guardian , August 28, 2003
7. ↑ Macintyre, pp. 77 ff.
8. ^ Macintyre, p. 248
9. ↑ ^{a b} Barbara Klimke: Peter Mandelson: The third man accounts in: Frankfurter Rundschau , July 21, 2010
10. ↑ Lord Mandelson on referendum: 'Not what we signed up for'. BBC News , January 23, 2013, accessed January 24, 2013 . 
11. ↑ Daniel Martin: Mandelson goes to war on teenagers downloading their music and movies ... just days after dining with anti-piracy billionaire in: Daily Mail , August 17, 2009 (engl.)
12. ↑ Lord Mandelson's Piracy Is Wrong - Three Strikes Law The Solution in: Gully.com, August 31, 2009, accessed August 31, 2009
13. ↑ Michael Hörz: Mandelson as Lord of the Files ( Memento from March 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) in: Telepolis, November 23, 2009
14. ↑ The Spectator: The Return of the Dark Lord ( Memento December 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
15. ^ British House of Commons - Register of Journalists' Interests
16. ^ Charlie Skelton: Our man at Bilderberg : "Mandelson's office has confirmed his attendance at this year's meeting: 'Yes, Lord Mandelson attended Bilberberg. He found it a valuable conference. '“ In: The Guardian , May 19, 2009
17. ^ The Mail on Sunday, April 23, 2000
18. ↑ Marc Shoffman: Ian McKellen ranked most influential gay one in: Pinknews.co.uk, July 3, 2006