Former Chancellor: After visiting Putin – calls for Schröder to be kicked out of the SPD

Berlin. After former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's visit to Russian President Vladimir Putin's birthday, there are new calls in the SPD for a party expulsion process. Politicians from the CDU and the Greens also called on the Social Democrats to throw Schröder out of the party. But there are also skeptical voices in the SPD. In 2023, an exclusion procedure against Schröder had already failed.

The new criticism of Schröder was sparked by his visit to Putin's 74th birthday and Schröder's new supervisory board mandate at the Russian retail chain Hyperglobus. Schröder was Chancellor from 1998 to 2005 and SPD leader from 1999 to 2004. After being voted out as head of government, he came under criticism for working for Russian energy companies. He is still considered a close friend of Putin, from whom he did not break away even after the Russian attack on Ukraine.

There are now renewed calls in the SPD to expel the former chairman from the party. The Bavarian SPD district of Upper Palatinate unanimously passed a corresponding motion at the district party conference, as district chairwoman Carolin Wagner said. The reason is Schröder's recent statements with the “warmonger Putin”. According to the application, the SPD executive board should request a party regulatory procedure with the aim of expelling Schröder. The “Tagesspiegel” had previously reported on it.

The SPD state leaders of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria also spoke out in favor of expelling the party if there was a chance of success. “A former chancellor who goes to war criminals’ birthday parties not only makes himself impossible for the SPD,” said the co-chair of the SPD Baden-Württemberg, Robin Mesarosch, to the “Tagesspiegel”.

“Schröder is a disgrace for the entire country.” The hurdles for expulsion from the party are high. But Mesarosch emphasized: “If there is a chance of success this time, we should do it.” The Bavarian co-country chief Sebastian Roloff made similar comments in the newspaper.

The SPD is also being pressured from outside to exclude Schröder. The Green Party leader Franziska Brantner told the “Tagesspiegel” that Schröder’s appearance in Moscow was “politically intolerable” and that he had learned nothing from the first exclusion process. “A new process should be on the table,” said Brantner. The head of the CDU social wing, Dennis Radtke, appealed to the SPD in the newspaper: “The SPD should finally clarify the Schröder case for themselves and finally put him out the door.

Despite all the criticism of the former chancellor, there is also skepticism in the SPD as to whether a new exclusion procedure would be successful. The SPD's leading candidate for the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, Jochen Ott, referred to high hurdles in the "Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger" and emphasized: "I am therefore skeptical at this point in time as to whether an exclusion procedure against Gerhard Schröder would have a chance of success." At the same time, Ott criticized: “His Putin cronies may be covered by freedom of expression, but they have little in common with the values ​​of the SPD.” Schröder is isolated in the SPD.

The chairman of the SPD Schleswig-Holstein, Ulf Kampf, sees it similarly. “As far as a new party exclusion procedure is concerned, I am skeptical after all previous attempts have failed,” he told the “Tagesspiegel”. “Whether with or without a party register: the paths of the SPD and Gerhard Schröder parted ways many years ago.”

The hurdles for expulsion from the party are high. According to the SPD organizational statutes, a member must have “intentionally violated the statutes or significantly violated the principles or rules of the party” and this must have caused “serious damage to the party.”

In 2023, an exclusion procedure against Schröder failed. 17 SPD branches got it rolling. The process went through several instances within the SPD, and in the end Schröder was able to remain a member of the party following a decision by the Federal Arbitration Commission.