Across the Rhine, everyone is fleeing Gerhard Schröder. The predecessor of Olaf Scholz and Angela Merkel has become a pariah in his own country since refusing to distance himself from his friend Vladimir Putin. Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the former social-democratic chancellor caused an outcry by accusing Kiev of “sounds of boots”. Since then, he has certainly denounced the war while sharing the blame between the two countries. This 77-year-old man, with blue-gray eyes, also refuses to give up his very lucrative functions within large Russian groups, as his own party, the SPD, nevertheless asks him to do.
Rosneft, Nord Stream et Gazprom
Because in addition to his friendship with the Russian president, Gerhard Schröder is chairman of the board of directors of the oil group Rosneft and chairs the shareholders’ committee of the Nord Stream AG consortium. Linked to Gazprom, the latter operates the pipeline of the same name and should have operated a second gas pipeline, the Nord Stream 2, sanctioned by the Europeans since the invasion of Ukraine. Gerhard Schröder is also in the running to join Gazprom’s board of directors next June.
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Among the social democrats, this attitude does not pass any more, even among its close relations like Lars Klingbeil. The party’s current co-chairman, who began his career with Gerhard Schröder, describes him as “completely isolated”. “He is on the wrong side of history”he added, pithy, to the magazine The mirror. A disciplinary procedure has been launched by the SPD in its stronghold, in Hanover, and could go as far as exclusion.
In the hands of Olaf Scholz
In the meantime, the former chancellor, author of controversial labor market reforms in the early 2000s, has been removed from the list of 34 outstanding personalities of social democracy which appeared on the SPD website. Persona non grata, Gerhard Schröder is also within the Borussia Dortmund football club and the German Football Federation, which withdrew his honorary member status. The city of Hanover plans to do the same.
As for the four employees of his Berlin office, they left the ship after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The former Chancellor could also lose that taxpayer-funded office. The decision is in the hands of his former relative, who became chancellor, Olaf Scholz.
A surprise mediation
His attempt at mediation with Vladimir Putin, at the request of Kiev, and announced to everyone’s surprise on Thursday March 10, could however help to restore his image somewhat. Especially if he gets an inflection from the Russian president. In Berlin, the embarrassment was in any case flagrant the day after his meeting with Vladimir Putin. The government assured that it had not been made aware of this initiative and did not want to comment on it.
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Within the SPD, on the other hand, we were a bit more talkative. “Regardless of the realistic chances of success, it would be great if Schröder could use his personal ties to Putin to achieve concrete progress in Moscow on a ceasefire and extensive humanitarian aid in Ukraine,” says MP Ralf Stegner.
Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andrij Melnyk agrees: “Gerhard Schröder is one of the few here in Germany who still has a direct connection with Mr. Putin, he told the newspaper last week image. Nobody else in Germany or Europe has anything like it. »