Luigi Pantisano

Luigi Pantisano (born 28 July 1979) is a German politician. He has been co-leader of The Left since June 2026. He has been a member of the Bundestag since the 2025 German federal election.

Early life and career

Youth and education Luigi Pantisano was born to Italian guest worker parents and grew up with his brother Alfonso Pantisano as a toddler in Calabria. After attending the Staufer Haupt-und Werkrealschule in Waiblingen and training as an architectural draftsman, Pantisano studied architecture at the Stuttgart Technology University of Applied Sciences and the Tokyo Institute of Technology from 2000 to 2005. He subsequently studied urban planning at the University of Stuttgart and graduated with a degree in engineering in 2008.

Professional activities From 2009 to 2014, he worked as a in Konstanz, and from 2011 to 2015, he was an academic assistant for research and teaching at the Urban Planning Institute of the University of Stuttgart. In 2015, he held various teaching positions at the Universities of Stuttgart and Konstanz, as well as at the Stuttgart University of Technology and Design (HTWG). In 2017, he joined the Left Party. In 2020, he ran for mayor of Konstanz. After being ahead in the first round of voting, he lost to incumbent in the second round.

In 2021, Pantisano was deputy state spokesperson for . He was elected unopposed on 20 June 2026, with 53.3 percent of the vote. He is the first chairman of his party with a migration background.

Controversy Partisano in a statement linked the governing policies of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to fascism, which triggered a storm of indignation. Later he apologized saying his words were shortened and wrong in that form.

Memberships Pantisano is a member of the , the Association of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime – Federation of Antifascists (VVN-BdA) and the United Services Union (ver.di).