Peter Porsch

Peter Porsch (born October 15, 1944 in Vienna) is a German politician and a member of the Parliament of Saxony for the far-left party Die Linke. He heads the parliamentary group of his party.

He was raised in Austria, but settled in the German Democratic Republic in 1973. Already from 1970 until the 1980s he was an informant for the Stasi under the name "IM Christoph", as was later established by the Commissioner for the Stasi Archives [ [http://linksextremismus.wikia.com/wiki/Peter_Porsch Informationsdienst gegen Linksextremismus (IDGL): "Peter Porsch"] ] .

He was fired from his job at the University of Leipzig in 2004 after his Stasi past was revealed [ [http://www.focus.de/politik/deutschland/stasi-verdacht_aid_85974.html Stasi-Verdacht: Peter Porsch gefeuert - Deutschland - FOCUS Online ] ] .

Porsch became a member of the SED in 1982. From 1991 to 1995 and from 1997 to 2001 he was chairman of the Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus in Saxony, and was elected to the Parliament of Saxony in 1990, and has headed the PDS/Die Linke faction since 1994. He was vice president of the PDS from 2000 to 2003.

On May 11, 2006, the Parliament of Saxony decided with great majority to open a case against Porsch at the Constitutional Court of Saxony in order to revoke his parliamentary seat, according to article 118 of the Saxon Constitution, as a consequence of his Stasi past. The case was denied in November that year for formal reasons, since the time limit to open a case was exceeded.

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