He rightly condemned the illegal war in Ukraine. But this war is only going out from Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. “And that’s why there can only be one logical conclusion: You don’t do business with an aggressor, with a warmonger like Putin. As a former Federal Chancellor, you never act completely privately. Especially not in a situation like the current one. It is therefore long overdue to end business relations with Putin. I expect that unequivocally.”
Klingbeil’s announcement is a surprising about-face in the Schröder case. The party leadership had so far rejected consequences for Schröder because of his commitment to the Russian energy industry and his friendship with Putin. At the same time, there were increasing numbers of votes from the party base that even called for him to leave the party.
Schröder is considered a longtime friend of Putin. Most recently, the former chancellor attracted attention because he criticized Ukrainian demands for arms deliveries as “saber rattling” before Russia attacked Ukraine. Klingbeil, who once worked in Schröder’s constituency office, then repeatedly emphasized that the former chancellor did not represent the opinion of the SPD. Klingbeil said he also thought it was a mistake that Schröder was on the supervisory board of the state-owned Russian energy company Rosneft. Schröder also has leadership positions on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipeline projects.
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In view of the previous reluctance of the party leadership, individual Social Democrats felt compelled to become active themselves. For example, the former SPD member of the Bundestag Rainer Arnold wrote a letter directly to Schröder and called on him to “leave the SPD himself in order to avert even greater damage”.
Incendiary letter to Schröder
“In view of the developments of the last few days, your current commitment is neither in the interest of Germany nor in the interest of social democracy. Your actions blatantly contradict the fundamental values of our party,” says the letter that Arnold published on his Facebook page.
Arnold has been a member of the SPD for 50 years, of which he was a member of the Bundestag for 19 years. From 2002 to 2017 he was spokesman on defense for the SPD parliamentary group.
“To put it bluntly, the members of my local association and I no longer want to work long hours in a community with you for our democracy, which is also often endangered, on an honorary basis,” writes Arnold to Schröder’s address. “So please do us the last service and spare the SPD and you personally further embarrassing and unbearable debates about your commitment to Putin’s interests, which are just as selfish as they are inhuman.”
The SPD in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, is also pushing for a break with Schröder. The district board there unanimously passed an application with an unequivocal appeal on Thursday, also to the federal party. According to the decision, Schröder should “immediately” resign from his positions at Rosneft and Nord Stream, reject the nomination for the supervisory board at Gazprom and distance himself from Putin.
“One must now make Gerhard Schröder persona non grata in the party”
In addition, if this demarcation does not occur, the SPD should “examine an expulsion procedure for its member Gerhard Schröder”. The reason for this is the attitude of the former chancellor to Putin. “In the eyes of the district executive of the SPD Heidelberg, defending and supporting a war criminal is incompatible with membership in the Social Democratic Party of Germany.”
Martin Günthner, longtime Bremen senator and deputy parliamentary group leader of the SPD in the Bremen Parliament, does not think much of a party expulsion process – due to legal uncertainties and the duration of such a process. Instead, the SPD politician demanded: “You have to make Gerhard Schröder persona non grata in the party.”
The SPD politician Gesine Schwan sees the party leadership on the train. Schwan told the “Spiegel” that Schröder was a “voluntary lobbyist for a warring aggressor” and called for a “clear cut to Schröder” from the party leadership.
Schröder speaks up on LinkedIn
Such voices have not yet been heard from Schröder’s SPD regional association in Lower Saxony. As the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” reports, the green-red majority in the city council of Hanover on Thursday evening rejected a motion by the CDU that called on Schröder to end his work for the Putin regime and threatened to otherwise strip him of his honorary citizenship. The SPD accused the CDU of “partisan political calculations” in its application.
Schröder commented on the Russian attack on Ukraine on the LinkedIn online network on Thursday. He called on the government in Moscow to end the war as soon as possible. Russia’s security interests also do not justify the use of military force, he wrote. At the same time, Schröder emphasized that the political, economic and civil society ties between Europe and Russia should not be completely severed if sanctions are necessary.
More on the Ukraine war:
Schröder avoided words like “attack” or “invasion” in his statement. Nor does he mention Putin himself. In his letter to Schröder, the SPD politician Arnold calls the Russian President a “notorious liar, war criminal, murderer and worst enemy of democracy and freedom”. SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich recently found clear words, speaking of a war of aggression that violated international law and describing Putin as a war criminal. Schröder’s commitment to Russia, however, was seen as “a private decision”.
Arnold sees it differently. Addressing Schröder, he explains: “Unfortunately, today you are a former Federal Chancellor who has completely lost his own dignity.” When he thinks of the people in Ukraine who were fighting for their freedom and their lives, it also makes him angry . “Especially since I notice that you don’t even pull the ripcord in the face of the now absolutely obvious crimes of the Russian leadership and thus retain at least a minimum of respect.”
More: Putin’s war: That’s what the President is aiming for by attacking the free world