Berlin The office staff have long since resigned, his party is suggesting that he leave, and now former SPD chancellor Gerhard Schröder is to finally lose his office because of his contacts in Russia. At the crucial meeting of the budget committee on the 2022 budget, his office equipment is to be cut this week. The chief householders of the traffic light coalition have agreed on a corresponding regulation together with their parliamentary group leaders.
After that, the former chancellor’s office is to be “dormant” in the future. “The budget committee calls on the federal government to ensure that the official equipment of former chancellors is based on the ongoing obligation from office and not status-related,” says a draft of the traffic light application for the budget committee available to the Handelsblatt.
The traffic light coalition does not officially justify the removal of Schröder’s privileges with his attitude towards Russia and Putin. That should probably make the decision less vulnerable. “Together we have found a sensible and legally secure solution,” said Green Housekeeper Sven-Christian Kindler to Handelsblatt. “Anyone who no longer takes on tasks for the Federal Republic no longer needs official equipment.” Schröder is only active as a lobbyist for Russian state-owned companies.
After their term in office, former chancellors usually not only receive a pension that depends on their term of office, but also an office with several employees, a driver and reimbursement of travel expenses. The basis for this is not a law, but merely a so-called stipulation decision of the budget committee – which can also be easily changed in the committee.
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The three factions of the coalition now want to bring in a new resolution in the clean-up meeting of the budget committee on Thursday. Schröder should only be allowed to keep his pension and personal security – depending on the security assessment of the Federal Criminal Police Office.
Union questions pension for Schröder
Last year, the costs for staff and travel for employees in the former chancellor’s office amounted to around 419,000 euros, which were paid from the state treasury.
Schröder has been heavily criticized for not giving up his posts at Russian energy companies despite the Russian attack on Ukraine. Schröder, who is considered a longtime friend of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, is the head of the supervisory board at the Russian state energy company Rosneft. He also holds management positions on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipeline projects.
Bundestag parties want to delete Gerhard Schröder’s office
Several of Schröder’s employees have already given up their posts. The SPD leadership has repeatedly asked the former chancellor to leave the party. There are also motions for expulsion from the party.
With its plans for former chancellor privileges, the coalition does not go quite as far as the Union, which also wants to take away Schröder’s pension because of his contacts with Russia. Schröder harms Germany’s international reputation, the Union justifies. Despite the war in Ukraine, he has still not distanced himself from the Russian president and is also sticking to his posts in various Russian energy companies.
The parliamentary secretary of the SPD parliamentary group, Katja Mast, defended the approach of leaving Schröder’s pension untouched. Salary is about property rights, Mast said. “That’s why it’s highly questionable constitutionally.”
The Hamburg CDU member of the Bundestag, Christoph Ploß, also criticized the fact that the taxpayer should continue to pay for Schröder’s travel expenses. The SPD must finally recognize that Schröder is only using his former post for his job as a “lobbyist for a dangerous autocrat,” Ploß told the Handelsblatt. “Therefore, EU sanctions against Gerhard Schröder should also be examined.”
MEPs are calling for sanctions against Schröder
The FDP MEP Moritz Körner also advocates this. The traffic light’s plans for official equipment are an “important first step,” Körner told the Handelsblatt. “In addition, Schröder must also be on the EU’s sanctions list.” Anyone who supports the “bloodthirsty” Russian President Vladimir Putin “should bleed financially themselves.”
The Green European politician Daniel Freund also welcomed the fact that Schröder “now has to start his work for the Kremlin from his home office”. “It cannot be that a former chancellor is lobbying for a war criminal and is also subsidized with taxpayers’ money,” Freund told the Handelsblatt. At the same time, he brought up comparable precautions for former federal ministers. “In other countries, lifelong bans on changing sides are already common.”
The EU Parliament plans to pass a resolution on Thursday in which Schröder and other lobbyists will be named. MEPs want to urge member states to “extend the list of people affected by EU sanctions to European board members of large Russian companies and politicians who continue to receive Russian funds”.
CSU European politician Markus Ferber is satisfied: “If Europe is serious about its strict sanctions regime, high officials from state-related Russian energy companies must also be on the sanctions list. Schröder is therefore high on the list of sanctions.”
More: “Putin’s most loyal voice in the EU” – Traffic light politicians call for sanctions against former Chancellor Schröder