Despite immense pressure, the former Social Democrat Chancellor refuses to give up his lucrative mandates in the service of Russian-state energy companies.
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Gerhard Schröder is a naked king. The former social democratic chancellor between 1998 and 2005, famous for its role as chief lobbyist for Russian state companies in Germany, is isolated as ever. The former leader close to Vladimir Putin still refuses to terminate his mandates at the head of the Supervisory Board of the Rosneft Gas Group and within North Stream, a subsidiary of Gazprom, the operating company of the Baltic pipelines, of which he had been an ardent defender.
This obstinacy of the old Chancellor, despite all the pressures he suffered, especially since a week from the management of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), turns to tragic. All his close collaborators turned his back. Tuesday 1 Er March, the four employees of his office resigned with one movement. Under his former mandate of Chancellor, Mr. Schröder, in addition to his retirement of 7,000 euros per month, an envelope of 407,000 euros per year paid by the taxpayer for an office at the Bundestag and the salary of His assistants. According to the German press, it would affect in more than 600,000 euros per year for its mandate at Rosneft, and 250 000 euros from North Stream.
The most spectacular defections have been those of the faithful: Albrecht Funk, his head of office, who has written his speeches for twenty years, and Béla Anda, former spokesman of the government between 2002 and 2005, who produced with him a Podcast very followed and fed his account on the LinkedIn network, also announced the stop of all these collaborations. On this network, Mr. Schröder had written last week that “the interests of Russia in safety do not justify the use of military means”, but had neither named Vladimir Putin, nor announced his withdrawal from the gas companies. close to him.
Since then, the question has taken a cumbersome institutional tour. The assistants of the old Chancellors are named by the Chancery and funded on its funds. Many voices rise against the renewal of the employees, as long as Mr Schröder did not give up his mandates. “My advice in Gerhard Schröder is to withdraw from these functions,” said Olaf Scholz at the ZDF channel, Thursday, March 3 in the evening. A few hours earlier, the influential association of German taxpayers, who denounces Gabegie in public spending, asked for the endowment of Old Chancellor to be withdrawn. Other organizations are breaking with him. Gerhard Schröder could lose among others his title of honor member of the Borussia Dortmund Football Club, as well as that of Hanover Honorary Citizen. It risks the exclusion of the SPD. The Industrial Herrenknecht and the Swiss Ringier Media Group also ended their cooperation with it.
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