No employees, no office, but still personal security: According to reports, the SPD, Greens and FDP also want to largely eliminate the equipment of the former chancellor. The Union had previously submitted an application.
Gerhard Schröder could soon lose the privileges that he was previously entitled to as former chancellor. According to media reports, the budget politicians in the traffic light coalition have now agreed on a joint application that would strip Schröder of most of his previous appointments. This includes, for example, his office with several employee positions, report the daily News and the mirror consistent.
Schröder’s four employees had asked for their transfer shortly after the Russian attack on Ukraine, apparently out of anger at the attitude of the former chancellor, who is close friends with Russia’s ruler Putin and holds well-paid positions for Russian energy companies. The positions of Schröder’s employees should no longer be filled, the application now apparently says, and the office of the former chancellor should be “put on hold”. The traffic light parties apparently do not want to withdraw personal security from Schröder.
According to the reports, the applicants do not want to create a “Lex Schröder”, but generally want to attach more conditions to the appanage of resigned heads of government. In the future, former chancellors should be provided with tax money “according to ongoing obligations from the office and not based on status,” according to the application. This would also affect Angela Merkel, who only got nine employees for her office in the fall. In the future, the former chancellor will only be able to use the office and staff for tasks that arise from her former position – such as answering citizens’ mail or planning official trips.
An application by the Union parliamentary group had already become known on Tuesday, which also aimed to handle the official equipment of former chancellors more strictly so that they “cannot be used for private and purely business matters”. The CDU and CSU also want to cut Schröder’s staff positions, but continue to grant him personal protection. Unlike the traffic light parties, however, Union Schröder also wants to cut “the budget for supply services”. The former chancellor would also lose his pension of 6,446 euros a month – a point that the motion by the SPD, Greens and FDP apparently does not provide for.
“He cannot serve two states or be supported by two states,” said Union housekeeper Christian Haase. Schröder has had several opportunities to speak out against Putin and his war, but has so far not used them. “It is therefore only logical to delete the official equipment.”