Criticism of ex-SPD chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s commitment to the Russian gas business continues. After the FDP and CSU, the taxpayers’ association is also demanding consequences for the equipment to which the 77-year-old is entitled as former chancellor. “I appeal to Mr. Schröder to give up his state-provided office, employees and company car,” said Vice President of the Taxpayers’ Association, Michael Jäger image. “He lobbies for Russian business interests with tax-financed German infrastructure.”
The Russian energy giant Gazprom had announced that Schröder had been nominated for the supervisory board of the state-owned company Gazprom. The Annual General Meeting is scheduled for June 30th. Schröder is a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin and recently made headlines with pro-Russian statements during the crisis between Moscow and the West. The ex-Chancellor is Chairman of the Shareholders’ Committee of Nord Stream AG and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nord Stream 2 AG. Both gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea connect Russia and Germany. Schröder is also the head of the supervisory board at the Russian state energy company Rosneft.
The Greens member of the Bundestag Claudia Müller said image, it is once again becoming clear whose interests Schröder is representing – “those of the Russian oligarchy surrounding Putin. That should have consequences.” The Union chairman in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Bundestag, Roderich Kiesewetter (CDU), suspects the Kremlin’s calculations behind Schröder’s nomination for the Gazprom supervisory board. This makes “the unclear and peculiar position of parts of the SPD in relation to Russia” clear, he said Handelsblatt. “Schröder’s nomination can therefore also be seen as a move by Russia to split the German government’s position on stopping Nord Stream 2 as a potential sanction and thus to discredit Germany as a whole.”
Former chancellors and former federal presidents are entitled to offices and staff in Berlin. On Friday, the parliamentary secretary of the CSU in the Bundestag, Stefan Müller, spoke out in favor of withdrawing Schröder’s office. The FDP defense politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann also commented accordingly on Twitter.