Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) is suing the Bundestag for the restoration of the special rights that were revoked in May. The 78-year-old demands that a former chancellor’s office with employees be made available to him again, as his Hanoverian lawyer Michael Nagel told the German Press Agency. The lawsuit was filed with the Berlin administrative court.
The decision of the budget committee of the Bundestag to cancel the funds for Schröder to equip his office in the Bundestag and to put the office on hold is illegal, according to a statement by the law firm available to the dpa. It is “claimed that former Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder no longer takes on the so-called ‘after-effects’ official duties”. “However, it is not specified what “long-term official duties” actually are, how their perception or non-perception is to be determined and what procedure is otherwise to be followed,” the statement continues.
Schröder’s lawyers write that the budget committee’s decision is more reminiscent of an absolutist princely state “in terms of the way it came about” and should not last in a democratic constitutional state.
The former chancellor has been heavily criticized for his commitment to Russian energy companies and his closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, the Budget Committee did not justify the partial cancellation of Schröder’s privileges with his work for the energy companies or his attitude to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. Rather, the “equipment of former chancellors should be carried out according to the ongoing obligations from the office,” says the regulation. Apparently, the parliamentarians could not see this in Schröder.
Last year, more than 400,000 euros flowed from the state coffers for personnel expenses in Schröder’s office. Schröder will continue to receive his pension of 8,300 euros after the decision, as well as personal security.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) welcomed the decision in May as “logical”. In the context of the decision, the European Parliament had spoken out in favor of sanctions against Schröder with a large majority. It was only on Monday that the SPD arbitration committee in Schröder’s hometown of Hanover rejected the expulsion of the former chancellor from the party.
CSU General Secretary Martin Huber is outraged by Schröder’s announcement. “Gerhard Schröder has lost all sense of decency,” Huber wrote on Twitter. The parliamentary secretary of the FDP parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Stephan Thomae, defends the decision to withdraw Schröder’s special rights. “The budget committee rightly withdrew Gerhard Schröder’s office and staff positions,” said Thomae. The official equipment is intended so that the Federal Chancellor can continue to carry out tasks for the country after their term of office. “The exact opposite is the case with Mr. Schröder, he is clearly acting against Germany’s interests,” emphasizes the FDP politician.