from
Nico Fried and Mike Szymanski, Berlin
On December 12, 2005, just 17 days after Gerhard Schröder handed over office to Angela Merkel, the SPD board discussed news that would change the party’s relationship with its ex-Chancellor: Schröder is to take over the chairmanship of the supervisory board at Nord Stream AG, majority owned by the semi-state owned Russian Gazprom group. Schröder says it is a “point of honor” for him to take part in the project that he launched as chancellor. Political opponents suspect that he is “not about gas, but about coal”. In the SPD, too, the reactions are very different: the new party leader Matthias Platzeck warns against hasty judgments and calls Schröder a “man of integrity”. Group leader Peter Struck, on the other hand, growls: “I wouldn’t have done that.”