Status: 04/26/2022 08:29 a.m
Former Chancellor Schröder and his connections to Russia are a burden on the SPD, and the party leadership is demanding his resignation. A party friend is now bringing EU sanctions against Schröder into play. The Bundestag is also examining measures.
The discussion about the pro-Russia stance of former SPD chancellor Gerhard Schröder continues. SPD politician Michael Roth brought up EU sanctions against Schröder. “Another indication of the tragedy of the Schröder case is that we have to seriously discuss sanctions against a former chancellor who has become a Russian energy lobbyist,” said the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Bundestag of the dpa news agency. “The European Union is obliged to keep checking who is jointly responsible for this war, who justifies and defends it or plays it down. Ultimately, the EU must decide on that.”
Schröder has been heavily criticized for not giving up his posts at Russian energy companies despite the Russian attack on Ukraine. He continues to work for the state-owned company Rosneft and the pipeline company Nord Stream 2 AG.
requested to leave the party
In his first interview since the beginning of the war, which was published in the New York Times over the weekend, Schröder described the war as a mistake, but did not distance himself from his longtime friend, Russian President Vladimir Putin. SPD chairwoman Saskia Esken then asked Schröder on Monday to resign from the party after almost 60 years of membership.
Roth confirmed Esken’s claim. “After this underground interview in the New York Times at the latest, the SPD and Gerhard Schröder chapter will be over once and for all,” said Roth. “It hurts me and I’m ashamed of it as someone who twice elected Gerhard Schröder Chancellor.” Not only the SPD has to bear the damage, but all of Germany. “And that’s why I’m making the appeal to spare this party a month-long party order process and to take the consequences myself, because he should feel that he is no longer wanted in our party.”
According to information from the dpa, there are more than a dozen applications from regional SPD associations for a party exclusion procedure against Schröder. Accordingly, an arbitration commission in whose region the relevant party member resides is responsible for the proceedings.
Less funds for Schröder’s Bundestag office?
Not only in Schröder’s party, but apparently also in the Bundestag, there are considerations to draw consequences from the position of the former chancellor. According to a media report, the budget committee of the Bundestag also wants to discuss the expenses for its Bundestag office as part of the deliberations on the federal budget for 2023. As the “Bild” newspaper reported, the budget item for Schröder’s office in the budget of the chancellery should be reduced because it was orphaned.
A spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group told the newspaper: “We are currently reviewing and revising the applicable regulations for the equipment of former chancellors.” Schröder has seven employees so far. According to “Bild”, the expenses recently amounted to a little more than 400,000 euros a year. Accordingly, the number of office spaces should be reduced. The former chancellor currently has six rooms in the properties of the German Bundestag.