Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder continues to lose ground. While the SPD politician is persistently clinging to Russia’s President Putin, the government factions are now also distancing themselves from him. In the SPD there are also demands for a party expulsion.
First, Schröder’s closest office manager, Albrecht Funk, who had been at the politician’s side for 20 years, resigned. In addition, three other employees from his Berlin office. The salaries of the employees cost the taxpayer between 400,000 and 500,000 euros annually. On Wednesday, Schröder’s longtime press spokesman Béla Anda also moved away from him and stopped the production of the joint podcast “Die Agenda”. That’s not all: Some SPD district and state associations – including Heidelberg – are now demanding that Schröder be thrown out of the party. And the Borussia Dortmund football club also separated from the former chancellor, who was an honorary member there. The German Football Association and the football club Hannover 96 want to follow suit.
The SPD is thus in a dilemma. Only recently, party leaders Lars Klingbeil and Saskia Esken asked the former chancellor to distance himself from Putin. “This war is being initiated solely by Putin,” Klingbeil wrote on Facebook. “And that’s why there can only be one logical conclusion: You don’t do business with an aggressor, with a warmonger like Putin.” It is therefore overdue for Schröder to end business relations with Putin. Schröder has not yet responded to Klingbeil’s request.
And the government factions are also keeping their distance. The FDP defense expert Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann is now in favor of no longer financing the former chancellor’s equipment as former chancellor. She told the Berliner Zeitung: “We must therefore make concrete efforts in the Bundestag to withdraw Gerhard Schröder’s endowment as a former chancellor. He harms the country he is meant to serve, and willingly accepts more than good pay for it from an autocrat. An appanage from the German state is not compatible with this. The collective wave of layoffs in his office shows that his previous employees also have significantly more foresight than the former chancellor and see it the same way.”
FDP politician: Excluding Schröder from the party would be appropriate
The FDP politician again criticized Schröder’s lobbying jobs. “He has made millions of euros by being the house and court lobbyist of a criminal president named Putin and apparently forgets that as a former chancellor he is committed to the Federal Republic of Germany and not to Russia. That has remarkable qualities, because even in political retirement he is still responsible when it comes to the external security of the Federal Republic and Europe,” emphasized the FDP politician. She added: “It’s not up to me to decide how the SPD deals with Mr. Schröder. Personally, however, I would find a party exclusion procedure appropriate.”
The care of former chancellors is an ongoing issue
It is also up to the Bundestag to decide on the further maintenance costs for the former chancellor. The pension is regulated by law, but the office and company car are a matter for the budget, i.e. the Bundestag.
However, the supply and equipment of former chancellors and federal presidents is an ongoing issue and a nuisance that has already led to extensive criticism by the Federal Court of Auditors. In addition to the overstaffing over the decades, which currently has nine employees, there are costs for personal and property protection, travel and office supplies. The whole thing is particularly bizarre in the case of Schröder, because the original purpose of these offices has been lost – to enable chancellors to continue to represent the state after they have left. “Original reasons for the establishment of offices for Federal Chancellors a. D. was the discharge of ongoing obligations, the discharge of the duties associated with the former office for a limited period of time, or the discharge of his previous duties. (…) The reasons for equipping Federal Chancellors a. D. with offices and staff seem to have been forgotten over time,” criticized the Court of Auditors in 2019.
I am in favor of a new regulation for former chancellors and former federal presidents. The provision of office and staff should be limited to five years.
Left politician Gesine Lötzsch
The regulations were therefore changed in the budget committee of the Bundestag and the equipment was reduced. According to this resolution, additional income should also be deducted from the honorary pay. So far, however, the changed regulations have never been applied.
In the opposition, the Left Party budget expert Gesine Lötzsch, among others, has been arguing for a long time for a different provision for the pensions of the former chancellor. “It would be good if the federal government took the current decisions of the budget committee seriously,” she told the Berliner Zeitung. Former Chancellor Merkel was granted far more staff than previously decided. This excess is unjustifiable. “I am in favor of a new regulation for former chancellors and former federal presidents. The provision of office and staff should be limited to five years. Because after five years, the political commitments are almost zero. Apparently, some former chancellors and former federal presidents also find it difficult to distinguish between business and representative tasks. I would like to relieve them of this burden,” said Lötzsch.
Schröder himself is resigning from his position at Herrenknecht AG
This criticism also applies to Schröder, who earned quite well after his chancellorship, also thanks to Putin. For his role alone as chairman of the shareholders’ committee at Nord Stream AG, he is said to have been paid 250,000 euros a year. Schröder also sits on the supervisory board of the Russian energy giant Rosneft and is said to receive an annual salary of around 600,000 euros. And the former chancellor is also said to be paid handsomely for his speeches and lectures, allegedly between 50,000 and 75,000 euros per appearance.
But his jobs and offices are disappearing – not only in football. Schröder himself has since resigned from his position as Vice Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Herrenknecht AG because, it is said, Herrenknecht has turned his back on Putin.