Germany: Former chancellor Gerhard Schröder is suing the Bundestag

Germany’s former Social Democrat chancellor Gerhard Schröder (1998-2005) is suing the country’s lower house in order to regain privileges he was stripped of in May, his lawyer told the German Agency today.

The 78-year-old politician is demanding that his office in the Bundestag be reassigned to him in his appeal to Berlin’s administrative court, explained his Hanover-based lawyer Michael Nagel.

The budget committee of the German lower house ruled in May that Mr. Schroeder, who has been criticized for years for his relations with Russia, should no longer have an office at the headquarters of the national delegation, ruling, however, that his pension should be continue to be paid normally and that he should continue to have policemen as bodyguards.

But the former chancellor’s legal team argues that the Bundestag committee’s decision to remove and close his office in the building was illegal, according to a filing obtained by dpa.

Gerhard Schröder has for years, even more so this year, come under fire for having held top positions in Russian energy companies for years, continuing to have contacts with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he calls a personal friend, and refraining from condemning the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, despite great pressure. In May, he finally announced that he was leaving his position on Rosneft’s board and rejected the possibility of taking a position on Gazprom’s board.

Yesterday the current federal chancellor, also a Social Democrat, Olaf Solz, preferred ambiguity when asked whether his predecessor could really play a mediating role. He said it would be “laudable” if Mr Schroeder persuaded Moscow to take delivery of a repaired turbine that Russian authorities say is the reason gas flows to the German market through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline have been reduced.

SOURCE: APE-ME