Germany: Soltz government drastically cuts former Chancellor Schroeder’s privileges

The German Federal Government is planning to drastically reduce the special privileges enjoyed by former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder due to his stay on the supervisory boards of Russian energy giants.

According to the request submitted by the Ministry of Finance to the Budget Committee of the Federal Parliament, the provision of an office in the Bundestag will be abolished immediately, while from May 19 the remuneration of Mr. Schroeder’s associates will be stopped. The reason given is that the 78-year-old former chancellor no longer has activities that justify keeping an office.

Gerhard Schroeder will, however, maintain his personal safety as long as the Police Criminology Department continues to assess the risk to his person as before, while he will not change anything in his pension, despite the fact that both the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) ) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) had called for it to be abolished. However, after a legal examination, it was considered that such a thing would probably be unconstitutional.

At the same time, the debate over the future of the former chancellor in his party, the SPD, is returning. Today, Interior Minister Nancy Fezer demanded his removal. Asked if Mr Schroeder could remain in the SPD, the minister replied emphatically: “Excluded!”.

Gerhard Schroeder, a close friend of Vladimir Putin, despite the war in Ukraine has so far not distanced himself from the Russian president, while retaining his position on the supervisory board of Rosneft and the chairman of the board of shareholders of the Russian company Nord Stream. In addition, the position he is claiming on Gazprom’s board is being judged in June.

Source: AMPE