IWithin the SPD, pressure is increasing on former Chancellor and former SPD national chairman Gerhard Schröder to end his activities for Russian state-owned companies in view of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Such a step was also demanded on Saturday by leading SPD politicians from Schröder’s political home in Lower Saxony. The Prime Minister of Lower Saxony and SPD state chairman Stephan Weil published a statement on Saturday afternoon stating that the SPD in Lower Saxony is clearly on the side of Ukraine in view of the Russian war of aggression.
“That’s why Gerhard Schröder must also end his involvement in Russian energy companies and thus support the efforts of the federal government and the entire West,” demands Weil. With a view to Schröder’s flimsy statement on Thursday, in which neither Putin’s name nor any self-criticism is missing and it glamorously states that it is Russia’s responsibility to ensure that the war is “ended as soon as possible”, Weil says that “it can’t stay that way .” At the same time, Weil reminds us that Schröder did a great job in peace politics by keeping Germany out of the Iraq war.
“It’s overdue to end business relations with Putin”
The SPD federal chairman Lars Klingbeil also clearly distanced himself from Schröder on Saturday. “This war is being initiated solely by Putin,” wrote Klingbeil, who is currently suffering from Corona, on Facebook. “And that’s why there can only be one logical conclusion: You don’t do business with an aggressor, with a warmonger like Putin. As a former Federal Chancellor, you never act completely privately. Especially not in a situation like the current one. It is therefore long overdue to end business relations with Putin. I expect that unequivocally.”
Klingbeil also comes from the Lower Saxony SPD. And Klingbeil, like Weil, recalled the Iraq war. Both statements were published almost simultaneously on Saturday afternoon. It was obviously a concerted effort.
According to FAZ information, the statements were preceded by attempts to talk to Gerhard Schröder and persuade him to withdraw from his activities for the Putin regime. The publication of the two declarations on Saturday afternoon should be understood to mean that these attempts failed shortly before.
Just like Klingbeil, its co-chairman Saskia Esken also called for consequences on Saturday afternoon: “Rosneft and Gazprom are now the infrastructure of a bloody war of aggression. With his mandates there, Gerhard Schröder is damaging the reputation of Germany and social democracy. Dealing with a warmonger is incompatible with the role of a former chancellor,” Esken wrote on Twitter. The statements by Klingbeil and Esken are to be understood as part of a fundamental strategic shift in Russia policy that the SPD carried out on Saturday.
In the Schröder case, Manuela Schwesig, who has been accused of being too lenient towards Putin in the past, suddenly put pressure on Saturday: The former Chancellor must “end his involvement in Russian energy companies,” demanded the SPD politician and Prime Minister of Mecklenburg- Vorpommern on Twitter.
The demands towards Schröder had previously increased in other SPD state associations that were not close to Russia in the past, such as Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Martin Günthner, longtime Bremen senator and deputy parliamentary leader of the SPD in the Bremen Parliament, described his party’s handling of the Schröder cause as “larmoyant”. “Actually, many Social Democrats are only ashamed of Gerhard Schröder,” Günthner told the FAZ and called on the party leadership not to ignore this development. “The party leadership is currently diving into the issue, the explosiveness of the case has apparently not yet arrived there.” Günthner demanded: “You have to make Gerhard Schröder persona non grata in the party now.”
The Saxony-Anhalt SPD state chairwoman Juliane Kleemann also called for consequences on Saturday. “My demand of Gerhard Schröder is that he unequivocally and publicly distances himself from Putin and at least stops any activities for Russian state companies,” Kleemann told the FAZ. “Working for a warmonger in times of war is absolutely unacceptable.”