Gerhard Schröder, who has become a political pariah in Germany because of his connections to Vladimir Putin, is suing the German lower house for depriving it of its benefits.
Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who has become a lumbering figure because of his ties to Vladimir Putin, has launched a court case against his country’s Chamber of Deputies, depriving him of some of his benefits, his lawyer said on Friday, August 12. the news agency AFP.
The information about a lawsuit is “correct,” said attorney Michael Nagel. In addition, a spokesman for the Berlin Administrative Court confirmed that a complaint had actually been filed.
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In May, the Bundestag decided to strip the former Social Democratic head of government (1999-2005) of some of his benefits as former chancellor, including offices awarded by the state. The MP then made sure “to draw the consequences of his behavior (…) in view of the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” according to the Bundestag’s Budget Committee. But his lawyer ruled on Friday morning on NDR that this decision was “illegal” and that Gerhard Schröder “only found out about it all from the media”. According to Michael Nagel, he also had no opportunity to speak to the parliamentary committee responsible for deciding on these benefits. The Bundestag did not want to comment on this complaint at this point in time.
Gerhard Schröder, 78, struck up a friendship with the Russian president in the early 2000s, whom he described in 2004 as the “perfect democrat”. The former boss, who was a mentor to current Chancellor Olaf Scholz, decided in May to step down from the board of oil company Rosneft, saying he had given up moving to that of gas giant Gazprom. But unlike most former European leaders who sat on the boards of Russian companies before the war, Gerhard Schröder, who was also heavily involved in Nord Stream AG, the disputed gas pipelines between Russia and Germany, was slow to step down from his various functions back. However, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) decided this week to keep him in their ranks.
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As former chancellor, he was entitled to several offices in the Chamber of Deputies and was allocated a budget for hiring staff. A privilege that costs taxpayers 400,000 euros a year. Dumped by some of his collaborators in recent months, he nevertheless retained his police protection and old-age pension as ex-chancellor.
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