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Gerhard Schröder said he would remain a social democrat as long as he was allowed to do so. © Michael Kappeler/dpa
Gerhard Schröder has been a member of the SPD for 61 years. The party leadership ostracized him because of his friendship with Putin. He doesn't just want to put up with that.
Hanover - Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has warned the SPD leadership not to want to erase him from party history. In an interview with the dpa, he complained that there was no longer even a picture of him in the party headquarters on the floor where the chairmen have their offices. "That is interesting. The SPD also has to be careful here. You know where that was the case?" he asked and gave the answer himself. "In the communist parties of the past, the respective leaders were of course erased from the history of the party when they were gone. So I don’t think the SPD will go that far.”
Schröder has been friends with Russian President Vladimir Putin since he was chancellor from 1998 to 2005 and continues to work for the majority Russian companies on the Nord Stream pipelines through the Baltic Sea. Although he described the Russian attack on Ukraine as a “fatal mistake,” he nevertheless did not break away from Putin. The SPD leadership therefore excluded him, but a party expulsion procedure against him failed.
No invitation to party conferences
Schröder is no longer invited to party conferences - as is usually the case with a former party leader. Party leader Saskia Esken justified this last year with the words: “I can no longer recognize Gerhard Schröder, the former chancellor and former party leader. I see him as a businessman pursuing his business interests.”
When asked whether the exclusion by the party leadership hurt him, Schröder said: “It doesn't hurt me because I know the actors who are causing it. So why should this hurt me? If my wife were to forget my birthday, that would hurt me." He added: "Should I make my fundamental relationship with German Social Democracy, which is the oldest democratic party that has ever existed in this country and will remain so, dependent on People who I can only take politically seriously to a limited extent?”
Schröder emphasized that he would remain a Social Democrat as long as he was allowed to do so. He couldn't complain about the lack of affection from the middle of the party. “There are still a lot of letters in which people don't understand certain attacks against me. So in this respect I believe that I still live in the middle of social democracy and want to continue to do so.” It is well known that he does not have a particularly close relationship with the current party leadership. “But you don’t have to have it to remain a social democrat.” dpa