Thursday, March 28

What should Germany do with the privileges of former chancellors?


  • The Bundestag withdraws the parliamentary office of the former Social Democratic head of government for his economic and personal ties with Putin

“I gave up a long time ago. appointment for a position in Gazprom Board of Directors. So I reported it to the company. That is why I am amazed at the press reports published with different information about it.” so announced Gerhard Schroeder his goodbye to the management of the Russian gas giant. The former chancellor did in your LinkedIn social network profile Last Tuesday. The post generated an avalanche of reactions and comments.

At the end of last week, it was another Russian energy consortium, Rosneft, which confirmed the end of Schröder’s services on its Board of Directors. The mediation of the former social democratic foreign minister was key to the commissioning and completion of million-dollar energy projects such as Nord Stream 2, the gas pipeline that connects Russia and Germany directly through the Baltic Sea and which, predictably, will never come into operation due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

It is the last chapter of the ‘Schröder case’, the former head of government in life more controversial of the Federal Republic of Germany whose economic relations with Russia and his friendship with Vladimir Putin have opened a debate on the privileges that chancellors have after their withdrawal from political life.

The former chancellor of Germany between 1998 and 2005 has only granted an interview from the beginning of the Russian invasion: the american newspaper New York Times It was published on April 23. In it, Schröder refused to give up their positions in Russian companies and claimed to remain in contact with Putin in defense of “German interests.”

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Bundestag decision

After weeks of political and media pressure, the German Parliament has taken action on the matter: the Bundestag has withdrawn the parliamentary office and the public budget to pay for travel and a team of employees that Schröder counted on as a former chancellor. He will still receive, however, the former head of government pension – about 8,000 euros per month – and with the protection of bodyguards paid with public money.

As confirmed to EL PERIÓDICO by a spokesman for the federal government, the public budget allocated to Schröder’s office amounted in 2021 to about €419,000. “That former foreign ministers have an office that supports them in the performance of their duties is a State practice applied for years. Federal funds and staff they can only be used for those activities. In case of changes in the office and its staff, the budget is adapted”, adds the government source.

The decision of the Bundestag could be only the first institutional measure against the figure of Schröder. The German Social Democratic Party (SPD) has launched an internal process of expulsion of the former chancellor. The European Parliament has gone a step further and requested the application of sanctions against him, something that the current German Chancellor, also a Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, rejects. Other voices within the Stoplight Coalition led by Scholz – Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals – do support personal sanctions against Schröder. The issue threatens to become a new source of tension within the coalition government.

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the German Social Democrats have faced accusations of too close historical relations with the Kremlin. The strategy known in German as “Wandeln durch Handeln” (“transformation through trade”) was inaugurated by Chancellor Willy Brandt’s SPD during the Cold War as a way of defuse military tension between the West and the USSR. What was successful then is regarded today as a failed strategy in Germany.

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“serious mistake”

The ‘Schröder case’ has also caused the federal government to launch a commission to study new measures so that “the official staffing of the former federal chancellors is carried out according to the duty of charge and not of status”. That is, Berlin wants to avoid new cases like that of Schröder, whose activity in the private sector has ended up colliding with the German reason of State.

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Gregor Schöllgen is probably one of the people who knows Schröder best. He is his official biographer, his friend and collaborator for decades. A historical defender of his political trajectory and heritage, Schöllgen now does not hesitate to criticize Schröder: “After Russia’s assault on Ukraine, he should not have remained in a general condemnation of the war, but should have resigned from all his positions and immediately, publicly and unequivocally distanced himself from Putin.” writes the historian and journalist on his personal website. “Gerhard Schröder has made a serious mistake. However, he bears no direct or indirect responsibility for this war. We shouldn’t forget it either.”


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