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"Move to Moscow": Klitschko annoyed with Schröder - SPD leaders are also demanding the next party step

2022-04-26T03:27:57.117Z


"Move to Moscow": Klitschko annoyed with Schröder - SPD leaders are also demanding the next party step Created: 04/26/2022Updated: 04/26/2022 05:14 By: Linus Prien Schröder has been criticized for weeks for sticking to his Russian mandates despite the Ukraine war. The SPD leadership is now demanding that he leave the party. Berlin - SPD chairwoman Saskia Esken suggested that former Chancellor


"Move to Moscow": Klitschko annoyed with Schröder - SPD leaders are also demanding the next party step

Created: 04/26/2022Updated: 04/26/2022 05:14

By: Linus Prien

Schröder has been criticized for weeks for sticking to his Russian mandates despite the Ukraine war.

The SPD leadership is now demanding that he leave the party.

Berlin - SPD chairwoman Saskia Esken suggested that former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder leave the SPD.

The former chancellor had previously given an interview in the

New York Times

in which he spoke, among other things, about the Bucha massacre and defended Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Criticism and calls for Schröder's party expulsion also come from the CDU.

Wladimir Klitschko demanded that Schröder's accounts should be frozen.

Relations with Russia: Schröder defends Putin

In an article published in the New York Times

on Saturday (April 23)

, Schröder advocated maintaining relations with Russia despite the war of aggression against Ukraine.

The 78-year-old did not comment on the details of a conversation he held with Putin in Moscow in March.

“What I can tell you is that Putin is interested in ending the war.

But that's not so easy.

There are a few points that need to be clarified.” Regarding the massacre in the Kiev suburb of Butscha, Schröder says: “That needs to be investigated.” The newspaper quotes the newspaper as saying that he doesn't believe that the orders came from Putin, but from lower levels him.

Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder © Zhang Yuan/Imago

"Gerhard Schröder has only acted as a businessman for many years" - SPD leadership expresses criticism

Resigning from his mandates with Russian corporations “would have been necessary to save his reputation as a former and once successful chancellor.

And unfortunately he didn't follow that advice," said Esken on Monday morning on Deutschlandfunk.

“Gerhard Schröder has been acting purely as a businessman for many years, and we should stop perceiving him as an elder statesman, as a former chancellor.

He earns his money working for Russian state-owned companies, and his defense of Vladimir Putin against war crimes allegations is downright absurd.” When asked whether Schröder should leave the party, the SPD politician said: “He should.”

Schröder is chairman of the supervisory board of the Russian state energy company Rosneft and chairman of the shareholders' committee of the pipeline company Nord Stream.

He is also still entered in the relevant commercial register as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nord Stream 2 AG.

The SPD leadership has long distanced itself from Schröder.

Esken and her co-chairman Lars Klingbeil had written to him at the end of February asking him to resign from his position at the state-owned company.

The answer they demanded "promptly" does not yet exist.

Former Chancellor Schröder criticized from almost all sides for Russia relationship

Schröder is not only heavily criticized in his own party.

Despite the escalating conflict in Ukraine, the former chancellor is sticking to his posts in Russian institutions and defending Putin whenever he can.

Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko told the

Bild Zeitung:

"Given his pro-Kremlin propaganda, one wonders why Schröder lives in Hanover and not in Moscow.

If he continues to work for murderers, one can only say: move to Moscow!” Klitschko also demanded that Schröder's accounts should be frozen and that he should be put on the American “no-fly list”.

The Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst, also publicly campaigned for the ex-Chancellor to be expelled from the party.

On Bild-TV, the CDU politician demanded consequences after the interview in the

New York Times

.

He called on the SPD leadership to put their words into action.

Wüst also said: "We should clearly state that the former chancellors and also former federal presidents can only be provided for if you don't get money from other countries." Wüst is currently in the election campaign.

State elections will take place in North Rhine-Westphalia on May 15th.

Relations with Russia: AfD man stands behind Schröder

The former Chancellor received support from AfD MP Martin Reichardt, among others.

According to the statements in his interview on Twitter, Schröder attested to “sober politics of interest”, which, according to the AfD politician, should be the order of the day.

(lp/dpa)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-04-26

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