Barbara Spaniol

Barbara Spaniol (born 17 September 1963) is a German politician of The Left who was a member of the Landtag of Saarland from 2004 to 2022. Starting her career in The Greens, she joined The Left in 2007. From 2013 to 2021 she was one of the vice presidents of the Landtag. She served as The Left's lead candidate during the 2022 Saarland state election.

Education and career Spaniol graduated from high school in 1982 and then studied librarianship and information science in Cologne, graduating as a librarian in 1985. From 1989 to 1992, she completed additional studies at the Academy for Office Management in Grünstadt. In 1990, she obtained a teaching qualification in word processing and subsequently became a state-certified teacher of office technology in 1991.

From 1985 to 2004, Spaniol worked as a member of the administrative staff of the Landtag of Saarland. In 1987, she became a civil servant and held the positions of deputy head of the Department of Information Services and head of the Landtag Library. From 1997 to 2004, Spaniol was women's representative at the Landtag; from 2002 to 2004 she was spokeswoman for the working group of state women's representatives.

After joining The Left, Spaniol became spokeswoman for education and speaker of the party's state working group on education. She was also elected chairwoman of Saarpfalz-Kreis district association and speaker for the board of the Homburg city association. In 2009, she became chairwoman of The Left faction in the Homburg city council. After the 2017 Saarland state election, she continued in office as third vice president. On 10 November, she founded the Saar-Linke faction with Dagmar Ensch-Engel, who previously resigned from The Left faction in 2018. She also vacated her position as vice president of the Landtag.

Ahead of the 2022 Saarland state election, Spaniol was elected as the Left's top candidate in the Neunkirchen constituency with 98% of votes. The Left won 2.6% of votes in the election and lost all their seats in the Landtag.

Other affiliations Spaniol was a member of the supervisory board of the Musikschule Homburg gGmbH from 2014 to 2019. Until March 2017 she was on the board of trustees of the Foundation for Franco-German Cultural Cooperation. Since March 2018, she has been a member of the board of directors of Studentenwerk in Saarland; she was previously a deputy member of the board. Before Spaniol defected to The Left, Pollak also ended his political activities with the Greens.