Berlin Chancellor Olaf Scholz has asked former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to give up his mandates at Russian energy companies. “My advice to Gerhard Schröder is to withdraw from these offices,” says the SPD politician on the ZDF program “Maybrit Illner”. He doesn’t think it’s right for Schröder to hold these offices. This is not a private matter for former SPD chancellor Schröders either, because he held a leading public office, said the chancellor.
Schröder is now isolated within his party and is threatened with expulsion from the party. The deputy federal chairwoman of the SPD and deputy prime minister of the Saarland, Anke Rehlinger, wrote on Twitter: “If Schröder stays on Putin’s payroll, he cannot stay in the SPD. Point.” Juso chairwoman Jessica Rosenthal had previously made a similar statement.
SPD chairmen Lars Klingbeil and Saskia Esken are also increasing the pressure on Schröder. In a letter, they issued an ultimatum to the former chancellor to resign from his positions at Russian state-owned companies.
A “prompt” answer is expected, said Klingbeil on Thursday at a joint digital press conference with Esken after a meeting of the party executive. He did not name a specific date. If Schröder does not comply with the request that was made last Saturday, advice will be given on how to proceed.
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Schröder was “completely isolated in social democracy,” said Klingbeil. There is no longer anyone on the party executive who “even remotely approves or justifies” Schröder’s behavior. Klingbeil also pointed out that an arbitral tribunal in the Hanover region was already dealing with a party order procedure against Schröder.
Specifically, Schröder is about his posts for the Russian energy companies Nord Stream 1 and 2 and the oil company Rosneft, where he is the head of the supervisory board. In addition, Schröder is to take on a supervisory board position for Gazprom.
The taxpayers’ association has meanwhile called on Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) to withdraw Schröder’s official appointments for his Berlin office. “It would be imperative that Chancellor Scholz not fill the office manager post and the other office staff for former Chancellor Schröder for the time being,” said Association President Reiner Holznagel to the Handelsblatt. “Anything else would send the wrong signal.”
On Tuesday, after more than 20 years, Schröder’s longtime office manager and speechwriter Albrecht Funk turned his back on the former chancellor. Deputy government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann did not provide any information on how things would continue with Funk and other previous employees of Schröder. The positions belong to the Chancellery.
The equipment of former Federal Chancellors is not regulated by law. The funds come from the budget of the Federal Chancellery and are approved by the Budget Committee on the basis of a proposal from the Chancellery. Holznagel therefore also sees the Bundestag as responsible. “The Bundestag, especially the budget committee, should bend over the formal job permits for Schröder and reassess them,” said Holznagel.
CSU: Schröder has disqualified himself politically and morally
The CSU was open to Holznagel’s claim. “After the previous employees left Schröder’s former chancellor’s office, this should now be closed as soon as possible,” said the budget spokesman for the CSU state group, Sebastian Brehm, the Handelsblatt. “As a first step, the budget committee must block the filling of the positions.”
In a further step, the office must be dissolved. “I expect the SPD to support these steps,” said Brehm. At the same time, he called on Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) not to fill the positions in the Schröder office for the time being.
With regard to the Schröder cause, Brehm spoke of a case that had been “unique in the history of the Federal Republic”. All warnings to the former chancellor to give up his posts in Russian state-owned companies after Russia’s attack on Ukraine have not borne fruit. “Mr. Schröder would rather have Mr. Putin fill his pockets,” said Brehm. With this behavior he had “politically and morally disqualified”.
In view of Schröder’s business with Russia, the head of the taxpayers’ association also demanded that the pension scheme for ex-chancellor be put to the test in general. “In due course, lucrative lobbying activities by former heads of government will need to be settled once and for all,” he said.
Vice-Chairman of the SPD Economic Forum calls on Schröder to turn his back on Russia
Some time ago, the Federal Court of Auditors called for stricter requirements for the pension scheme for former chancellors. In a 2018 report, the authority complained that the ex-chancellors used the office equipment to organize private appointments or to do “lobby work for certain interest groups” instead of “handling previous tasks”.
The pressure on Schröder is also growing within the party. The Vice President of the SPD Economic Forum, Matthias Machnig, called on the former Chancellor to end his business relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. As SPD election campaign manager, Machnig helped Schröder get into the Federal Chancellery in 1998 and 2002.
“Gerhard Schröder should do what the former Austrian Chancellor did immediately and unequivocally, give up his position in Russia,” Machnig told Handelsblatt. “First the country, then your own interests.”
Austria’s former Chancellor Christian Kern resigned from his position on the supervisory board of the Russian state railway RDZ a few days ago. In view of the current events, there was no alternative, the social democrat told the Austrian daily Der Standard. The RZD has become part of “war logistics”, which he deeply regrets.
The 77-year-old Schröder himself did not speak up – but his wife Soyeon Schröder-Kim did. On Wednesday morning, she commented almost verbatim on Russia’s attack on Ukraine, as Schröder did almost a week ago. Many people asked her “if my husband could talk to Mr. Putin about the war in Ukraine,” she wrote in an Instagram post that was no longer accessible a few hours later.
Like Schröder before her, she emphasized in a LinkedIn post that the war must end as soon as possible. “But looking to the future, the remaining political, economic and civil society ties that exist between Germany and Russia will not be severed.”
The former chancellor has long been criticized for his ties to Russia. He is considered a longtime friend of President Putin, who last week ordered the attack on Ukraine.
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