News Themen der Woche KW24 News Bilder des Tages MOSCOW, RUSSIA JUNE 14, 2018: Russia s President Vladimir Putin R hugs Gerhard Schroeder, Chairman of the Shareholders Committee with Nord Stream 2 AG and former German chancellor, at the opening of the 2018 FIFA World Cup at Luzhniki Stadium. Alexei Druzhinin/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/TASS PUBLICATIONxINxGERxAUTxONLY TS0843FE

Such a procedure has not yet existed in the SPD. And in the end, Gerhard Schröder is also to be reimbursed for the expenses if he applies for them. 17 local groups and sub-districts had filed party order proceedings against their own former chancellor, with the aim of expelling them from the party because of his connections to Vladimir Putin and his work for Russian energy companies.

The 78-year-old has been a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany since 1963, currently in the SPD local association in Hanover-Oststadt/Zoo. His behavior has cost him many honorary memberships, unlike previous chancellors, hardly any streets or squares should be named after him, including honorary citizens He is no longer Hanover. And the Bundestag wants to take away the former chancellor’s equipment, but he is also taking action against it. Chancellor Olaf Scholz also kept his distance from him.

Even long-time companions report that they can no longer get hold of Schröder, he is just a stubborn head. But he won this fight for now. Because there are enormously high hurdles in the SPD for such an expulsion – this was already shown in the case of Thilo Sarrazin, which ended up being expelled.

The responsible arbitration commission of the Hanover sub-district, chaired by Heiger Scholz, has now decided: “The respondent is not guilty of violating the party order.” This is justified, among other things, by the fact that Schröder would in no way encourage Putin in his warlike actions, In addition, he has no influence on the operational business of the energy companies in his supervisory board activities.

It is incompatible with membership in the SPD to call for a war of aggression or to justify the military attack of one state on another. But Schröder did not do that; on the contrary, he had already declared on the day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine that “Russia’s security interests do not justify the use of military means”. He also stated that Russia was at war with Ukraine.

It is detailed what Schröder said before and since the beginning of the war – that he was a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin and that he would continue to profess this friendship. The most recent, particularly controversial interview in “stern” could not be included in the ongoing proceedings.

Some applicants are likely to appeal the decision. You have two weeks to appeal to the District Arbitration Commission. SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil emphasizes: “The arbitration commission in Hanover has made a legal decision. One thing is certain for us: Gerhard Schröder is politically isolated with his positions in the SPD.”

The chairman of the SPD Region Hannover, Steffen Krach, told the Tagesspiegel: “I respect this decision. Politically, I have absolutely no sympathy for Gerd Schröder’s position.

In the process, statements by Schröder were tapped out one after the other. “I will not give up my opportunities to talk to President Putin,” reads an article in the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. Putin is interested in a negotiated solution, but negotiations have so far failed because of Ukraine, Schröder is quoted as saying. On March 10, 2022, he himself outlined three points of what a negotiated solution could look like: “a) Recognition that Crimea is in fact Russian, even if the status is complicated under international law; b) Ukraine must become neutral (example Austria); c) the Minsk Agreement must be taken seriously and the regions in the Donbass must be granted more autonomy.” The war can only be ended through diplomatic negotiations. He himself went on a mission to Moscow.

Most recently, the adviser to the Ukrainian President Selenskyj, Mykhailo Podoljak, sharply criticized Schröder for this thinking in an interview with the Tagesspiegel in Kyiv. “Mr. Schröder does not understand in any way what Russia is really doing, how it is acting. Russia does not want negotiations, Russia wants territory conquest.”

Schröder, himself a lawyer, was always sure that it would not be enough for an exclusion. Even if many in the SPD consider his views on Putin to be naïve. He had actually indicated a break should Russia ever use the gas as an economic weapon – he has been chairman of the shareholders’ committee of Nord Stream AG for over 16 years – gas deliveries through the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 1 had recently been throttled to 20 percent. Germany is threatened with a veritable gas supply crisis in winter due to the high level of energy dependency in its chancellorship and in the increased energy dependency of Angela Merkel.

He has renounced an additional supervisory board mandate at Gazprom, and he has also been chairman of the supervisory board at Rosneft since 2017. On May 20, it was announced that Schröder would give up this post.

The resolution emphasizes what actual reasons this could have been: “Previously, demands had become known in the European Parliament to put the respondent on the list of sanctions against Russian officials.”

The SPD branches insisting on the exclusion asserted that Schröder had not sufficiently distanced himself from the war of aggression after the Russian Federation attacked Ukraine in violation of international law; However, because of his connection to Putin and his membership in committees “of gas companies owned directly or indirectly by the Russian Federation,” this was necessary.

On the contrary, he tried to justify the war. “Due to his exposed position as a former Chancellor and party chairman, he bears a special responsibility. This also means that he should have withdrawn from the committees of the gas companies.” He did not do this, although he was warned to do so by the SPD chairman. And so the Gerhard Schröder chapter will keep the SPD busy.