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Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has angered many members of the Social Democratic Party, SPD. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, they have been demanding Schröder’s expulsion from the party. How likely is that?
This is the third attempt. On Thursday, the branch of the SPD party in Hanover discusses the demands for the removal of the former chancellor, Gerhard Schröder from the party. The commission has 17 requests from different branches of the party, said the head of the SPD branch for Hanover, Christoph Matterne. He does not expect a decision this week. The decision can be made within three weeks. With this procedure, the opinion’s gaze is again directed to the difficult relationship of the former head of the SPD (1994-2004) and the former chancellor (1998-2005) with the party.
Gerhard Schröder, who was friendly with President Putin when he was chancellor, and who previously came under criticism because of his commitment to the Russian gas concern. But after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, many branches of the party raised their voices and demanded the expulsion of the 78-year-old former chancellor from the party.
“Serious damage” to the party?
But how is the expulsion from the party? The odds for this are high. The German constitution provides that the “internal regulation” of the parties must respond to “basic democratic principles”. A 1967 law on parties regulates their functioning in detail, and is of great constitutional importance. This law stipulates that expulsion from the party is carried out only in case of a serious violation of the status or violation of the basic principles of the party, causing serious damage to this party. Indeed, in Hanover, where Schröder lives and is a member of the regional branch, it is a matter of “party disciplinary procedure”. Its result, as the strongest weapon, can be exclusion. But a written reprimand is also possible. In principle, each party does not have the obligation to accept everyone, but no party can get rid of its member so easily. For this, concrete behavior to the detriment of the party must be proven.
Ali Kaan Sevinc tells DW that he is aware that this step of excluding Schröder is not easy, but “we want this as before”. He recalls the e-mails that have arrived at the regional branch and where the majority has clearly expressed the exclusion of Schröder from the party.
But the jurists see such a procedure with reservations. Martin Morlok, lawyer for the party’s legal affairs, sees as “problematic” a procedure, “which in the narrow sense has nothing to do with the party.” In Schröder’s case, it is about his work and his friendship with Putin. “But this has nothing to do with the party in the first place.” Morlok emphasizes that one should not look at the whole way someone conducts his life through the glasses of the party. “A party is something other than an order of monks.”
Gerhard Schröder and Olaf Scholz – when Scholz was mayor of Hamburg
Quiet Schröder
The former chancellor himself calmly follows the procedure for his dismissal. “I am and remain a social democrat”, he said a month ago to the magazine “Spiegel” and that he will not change his political stance. A few weeks ago Schröder announced that he will leave the supervisory board of the energy concern, Rosneft, and no longer wants an appointment to the supervisory board of Gazprom.
Neither Schröder nor his lawyer or any confidants attended Thursday’s meeting of the party’s branch in Hanover. Ali Kaan Sevinc will attend. The head of the SPD branch from the Ruhr area sees the opinion of the party’s base as unchanged even after Schröder’s announcement about the end of engagement with Russian corporations. “He has betrayed the values of the SPD, and the responsibility to have solidarity with the country”./DW
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