The former chancellor gave up his post as head of the supervisory board on Friday.
(Photo: imago/ITAR-TASS)
Berlin A debate has broken out in the traffic light coalition about how to deal with former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. The background is the decision of the former SPD leader to resign from his position on the supervisory board of the Russian energy company Rosneft.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) calls on Schröder to give up further activities for Russian companies. “We note that it is now happening to one and the others must follow,” said Scholz on Saturday. The co-leader of the SPD-Left, Sebastian Roloff, also warned: “I would like Gerhard Schröder to stop all business relationships with Russia and Russian companies.”
But the FDP Federal Vice Wolfgang Kubicki thinks little of that. “Consequences are understandable and understandable, but the line of humiliation should not be crossed,” he told the newspapers of the Funke media group. Kubicki is not only opposed to the SPD, but also to leading representatives of his own party.
The FDP presidium member Moritz Körner explained, for example, that as long as Schröder was chairman of the shareholders’ committee of the pipeline company Nord Stream 1, he would remain a Putin beneficiary. There should therefore be noticeable consequences for him, Körner told the Handelsblatt.
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Rosneft announced on Friday that Schröder would not extend his term as head of the supervisory board. A day earlier, the European Parliament had spoken out in favor of putting Schröder on the list of sanctions against Russian oligarchs.
Schröder is said to have received $600,000 for Rosneft items
Schröder’s post at Rosneft is said to have been worth $600,000 a year. Schröder also works for the Gazprom subsidiaries Nord Stream 1 and 2. He is also nominated for the Gazprom Supervisory Board.
Schröder gives up board positions at Rosneft
Schröder is a longtime friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Because of his war of aggression in Ukraine, the ex-chancellor has recently come under increasing pressure because of his refusal to condemn Russian aggression and to distance himself from Putin. Schröder is having the decision by the budget committee of the Bundestag to abolish his privileges as former chancellor legally reviewed.
The CSU member of the Bundestag Stefan Müller also agreed with Scholz. “Former SPD chancellor Gerhard Schröder must end all activities in Russia,” said Müller. “There is nothing humiliating about drawing the necessary conclusions from Russia’s war against Ukraine.”
The Green MEP Daniel Freund adds: “It is up to Schröder to finally put an end to this tragedy and to stop all activities for Putin’s companies.” The former chancellor knew “what he was getting into when he signed highly paid contracts with Putin’s energy companies”. . With his title as former chancellor, Schröder “given the interests of the Kremlin a legitimate coat of paint and made the pro-Putin networks in the SPD possible in the first place.”
More: Is Gerhard Schröder gambling away his reputation as former chancellor?