Gerhard Schröder, who has become a political pariah in Germany due to his ties to Vladimir Putin, is suing the German lower house for depriving him of his benefits.
The former German chancellor Gerhard Schröderwho has become a cumbersome figure because of his links with Vladimir Putin, has launched legal proceedings against the Chamber of Deputies of his country which deprived him of part of his advantages, his lawyer announced on Friday August 12 to AFP .
Information regarding a legal action is “correct“, indicated the lawyer Michael Nagel. In addition, a spokesperson for the Berlin Administrative Court confirmed that a complaint had indeed been filed.
In May, the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, decided to deprive the former social-democratic head of government (1999-2005) of some of his advantages as former chancellor, including offices allocated by the federal state. . The deputies then assureddraw the consequences of its behavior (…) in the face of the Russian invasion in Ukraine“, according to the budget committee of the Bundestag. But his lawyer, speaking Friday morning on the regional public radio NDR, judged that this decision was “illegal“, Gerhard Schröder having “only learned about it from the media“. He also did not have the opportunity to speak before the parliamentary committee responsible for ruling on these benefits, according to Michael Nagel. The Bundestag did not wish to comment on this complaint at this stage.
Gerhard Schröder, 78, had forged a friendship with the Russian president in the early 2000s, whom he described in 2004 as “perfect democrat“. The former leader, mentor of current Chancellor Olaf Scholz, resolved in May to leave the board of directors of the oil company Rosneft and said he had given up joining that of the gas giant Gazprom. But unlike most of the former European leaders present before the war in the governing bodies of Russian companies, Gerhard Schröder, also very involved in Nord Stream AG, the controversial gas pipelines between Russia and Germany, was slow to resign from its various functions. The German Social Democratic Party (SPD), however, decided this week to keep him in its ranks.
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As a former Chancellor, he was entitled to several offices in the Chamber of Deputies and a budget was allocated to him to employ staff. A privilege that costs 400,000 euros per year to taxpayers. Dropped in recent months by some of his collaborators, he nevertheless retained his police protection and his retirement pension as a former chancellor.
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