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The traffic light wants to delete Schröder's privileges

2022-05-17T21:32:41.745Z


The governing coalition is getting serious: Gerhard Schröder is set to lose his office as former chancellor this week because of his jobs in Russia. Will the Social Democrat challenge the decision?


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Former Chancellor Schröder: Is he losing his equipment now?

Photo:

Kay Nietfeld / dpa

After long internal discussions, the traffic light coalition has agreed to cut former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's staff this week.

The budget holders of the SPD, Greens and FDP plan not to fill the positions previously held by Schröder's office from Thursday onwards.

In an application that is to be presented by the coalition partners on Wednesday and that SPIEGEL has seen, it says that the remaining staff should handle the tasks of the office and then perform "other tasks" outside the Schröder office. The former chancellor should keep his personal security may.

This threatens to largely cut off Schröder from taxpayers' money.

The reason for this is his refusal to resign from several management positions in Russian companies despite the war in Ukraine.

Schröder's personnel costs recently amounted to around 400,000 euros per year.

Weeks ago, several of the former chancellor's employees resigned in protest at his stance on Russia.

The traffic light application, which is to be decided in the budget committee's so-called adjustment session on Thursday, is considered legally sensitive because the deletion of the privileges of a former chancellor is unprecedented.

In order to prevent the step from appearing as an act of political arbitrariness and pure »Lex Schröder«, the coalition partners agreed in their motion on a passage that ensures that other former Federal Chancellors could potentially also be affected by the rules, such as Angela Merkel .

Will Schröder take legal action against the decision?

For example, the federal government should ensure that former heads of government are given official appointments in the future “based on ongoing obligations from office and not based on status”.

What is meant is that former chancellors should no longer be granted privileges automatically, but only if they also perform tasks that are, to a certain extent, compatible with the spirit of the office.

It should be noted that Schröder "no longer accepts any ongoing obligations from the office," the application says, apparently alluding to his jobs in Russian corporations.

For Merkel, who was approved for nine jobs just a few months ago, including two drivers, the application has so far not resulted in any consequences.

It is considered certain that the plan will be approved by the majority of coalition partners in the committee.

However, it is unclear how legally secure the decision is.

The committee is concerned that Schröder could take legal action against the cancellation of his endowment.

Which tasks are covered by an "ongoing obligation from the office" and which are not, may be a matter of interpretation, more precise definitions are missing in the paper.

The federal government is asked to check by November 1 whether further regulations are necessary.

Incidentally, Schröder's pension, which the CDU and CSU are calling for its deletion, remains untouched.

According to the coalition, such a step would violate the Basic Law.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-05-17

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