The former Chancellor is scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
(Photo: imago images/Jens Schicke)
Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder made a surprise trip to Moscow to meet Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin. Schröder wants to mediate there in the Ukraine conflict, reports the news portal “Politico”. Schröder and Putin have been close friends for years.
According to Handelsblatt information, neither the Federal Chancellery nor the SPD party leadership were informed about the trip, they only found out about it from the press. It will be seen whether and what Schröder will do on his journey, it said.
Schröder has been heavily criticized in the SPD leadership for weeks, and the former chancellor is even threatened with a party expulsion process. Schröder has been working as a gas lobbyist for Putin for many years. He is involved with the energy companies Nord Stream 1 and 2 and the oil company Rosneft, where he is chairman of the board. In addition, Schröder is to take on a supervisory board position for Gazprom.
The SPD leadership had repeatedly asked Schröder to resign his mandates and given him an ultimatum. “The clock is ticking,” said SPD party leader Lars Klingbeil.
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On Thursday, Klingbeil and his co-boss Saskia Esken, together with eight former SPD leaders, once again called on Schröder to distance himself from Putin in a letter. “Act and speak clear words,” they demanded. SPD faction leader Rolf Mützenich described the letter on Thursday as a “clear signal”. So far, nothing has been known about a response from the former party leader.
Read about this: Chancellor Scholz calls on Schröder to give up his mandates
Independently of this, the local SPD association in Heidelberg has already applied for party exclusion proceedings against Schröder, which are currently being examined. The SPD also deleted Schröder from an online ancestral gallery.
But not only in the SPD did Schröder fall out of favor. The workers’ welfare organization withdrew Schröder from the Heinrich Albertz Peace Prize awarded in 2005, the Borussia Dortmund football club from honorary membership, and the city of Hanover from honorary citizenship.
Good relationship with Putin and his mandates
Although Schröder condemned Russia’s war against Ukraine, he maintained his good relationship with Putin and his mandates. To those he confides in, he is supposed to argue that he sees himself as right and that everyone else is wrong. The 77-year-old should leave calls from the SPD and from old companions unanswered.
His wife Soyeon Schröder-Kim spoke publicly on Instagram last Saturday and defended her husband in a post. Soyeon Schröder-Kim wrote in her contribution that she was appalled at the haste with which the SPD in the leadership, but also in many basic organizations, was supporting a campaign against her husband.
“You can be sure that whatever my husband can do to help end the war, he will do it, regardless of ultimatums from the SPD or other organizations such as the DFB.”
Schröder-Kim had previously brought her husband into play as a possible peace mediator, but deleted a corresponding post shortly afterwards. Now Schröder is actually in Moscow. It is now completely open whether he can make a difference there.
More: Read the current developments in the Ukraine war in the live blog.