Merkel leads tributes to centre-left veteran Thomas Oppermann

Berlin (dpa) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel led tributes on Monday to Social Democrat Party (SPD) veteran Thomas Oppermann, who died suddenly at the age of 66.

“For many years I have valued him as a reliable and fair social democratic partner” in her coalitions with the SPD, Merkel said through her spokesman Steffen Seibert.

As a parliamentary leader, Merkel said, Oppermann had “rendered outstanding services to our parliament in turbulent times.”

Opperman, who was a vice president or deputy speaker of Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, collapsed on Sunday evening while filming a segment for the broadcaster ZDF and was taken to hospital.

Born in western Germany and a lawyer by training, he held a series of ministerial posts at the state level.

He then secured a seat in Germany’s national parliament, the Bundestag at the election in 2005, which resulted in Merkel forging a ruling coalition with the SPD.

Oppermann went on to hold several top parliamentary jobs. Following the 2017 election, he was talked about in the media as a possible candidate to become foreign minister in Merkel’s new conservative-led alliance with the SPD.

More recently, he emerged as a major proponent of parliamentary and election reform.

SPD leader Norbert Walter-Borjahns said on Twitter that his death had come as a “severe shock” to the party.

“Our country has lost an accomplished politician, the Bundestag an outstanding vice president and the SPD a passionate and combative comrade. We all lose a friend – and are deeply sad,” SPD Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz tweeted.

European Commission President and former German minister Ursula von der Leyen said Oppermann’s death had affected her deeply.

“An exceptional person and democrat is dead. So sad,” the long-time CDU politician wrote on Twitter.

Opermann announced at the end of August that he would not run in the next parliamentary election.

“After 30 years as a representative of the Lower Saxony regional parliament and in Germany’s Bundestag, it’s now the right time for me to do something else again and take on new projects,” he said at the time.