Birthday
Schröder is 80: Scholz and the SPD leadership congratulate
Gerhard Schröder (SPD) was Chancellor from 1998 to 2005. photo
© Michael Kappeler/dpa
Because he is sticking to his friendship with Putin, the SPD leadership has broken off contact with its ex-chairman and former Chancellor Schröder. She is making an exception for her 80th birthday.
Despite all the profound differences Gerhard Schröder congratulates Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the SPD leadership on his 80th birthday. “As usual, the Federal Chancellor congratulates the former Chancellor on his special birthday in the form of a congratulatory letter,” a government spokeswoman told the German Press Agency when asked.
An SPD spokesman said that SPD chairmen Saskia Esken and Lars Klingbeil had “congratulated their predecessor Gerhard Schröder in writing” on his 80th birthday. Schröder was born on April 7, 1944 in Mossenberg in the Lippe district of North Rhine-Westphalia. He was Chancellor from 1998 to 2005 and chairman of the SPD from 1999 to 2004.
SPD breaks with Schröder
Because he did not break off his friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin after Russia’s attack on Ukraine and continued to work as a lobbyist for the Russian energy industry, the party leadership broke with him. However, a party expulsion procedure against him filed by several SPD branches failed last year.
Schröder had sharply attacked the SPD leadership before his birthday. In a dpa interview in mid-March, he described the party leadership as “people that I can only take politically seriously to a limited extent.” He later followed up again in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. “What really saddens me is the provincialism of the current leadership figures,” he said, adding, referring to the poll numbers: “If I had been at 15 percent, I would have resigned immediately.”
In 2014, the SPD honored its former chancellor and former chairman on his 70th birthday – shortly after the Russian annexation of Ukrainian Crimea – with a ceremony in the Berlin art museum Hamburger Bahnhof. That won’t happen this time.
Private celebration, secret guest list
Instead, Schröder will celebrate privately in Berlin on April 27th. The guest list is still being kept under wraps. “My wife does that and it’s a secret,” said Schröder in the dpa interview. “I know that friends will definitely be invited. But I don’t know any more details.”
According to a media report, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier congratulated Schröder with a short letter on official stationery. The “Bild am Sonntag” quoted from the letter that Steinmeier was sending his “heartfelt congratulations and best wishes for your health and that of your family.” “I wish you a nice celebration and good conversations with family and friends on this special day of honor,” it continues.
Steinmeier was a long-time companion of Schröder during his time as Prime Minister of Lower Saxony and later as Federal Chancellor; from 1999 to 2005 he was Schröder’s Chancellery Minister. After the start of the Russian war of aggression, Steinmeier publicly distanced himself from Schröder.