The latest headache for the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, is another German Chancellor, a Social Democrat like himself and one of the best-known politicians inside and outside his country: Gerhard Schröder. At 77, the once charismatic leader has become the oldest lobbyist of Vladimir Putin in Germany, to the embarrassment of his party and the displeasure of the coalition government headed by Scholz for only two months. Schröder, who was chancellor between 1998 and 2005, has spent years accumulating positions in Russian public companies. A few days ago he was nominated for yet another: member of the board of directors of the gas giant Gazprom. But it is not his hefty payroll that has Berlin on edge, but rather his views on the conflict in Ukraine in the midst of an escalation of tension with Russia.
With Moscow stationing tens of thousands of troops and heavy artillery on the Ukrainian border, Schröder has accused Kiev of making “saber rattling” for asking Western allies to send him defensive weapons. He has also criticized the Foreign Minister, the green Annalena Baerbock, for visiting Kiev before Moscow on her inaugural trip and has described the deployment of Russian troops as a “reaction” to NATO maneuvers in the Baltic countries and Poland. His words have caused outrage and shame in the Social Democratic leaders, who have come out in a rush to distance themselves from them. There are deputies who have suggested withdrawing the office and staff paid with public money to which all foreign ministers are entitled when they leave office.
Schröder has created a huge credibility problem for the Scholz government precisely when the United States and the Western allies are wondering if they have a reliable partner in Germany against the Russian threat. In the midst of a crisis of confidence, questions are raised about how much influence the former chancellor really has and how entrenched his views are in the German Social Democratic Party. Scholz himself had to answer those questions in the interview he gave to CNN after visiting US President Joe Biden last week. “He does not speak for the Government, he does not work for the Government. It is not the Government. I am the chancellor”, he underlined in English.
Unlike Merkel, who played a central mediating role between Putin and Western allies the last time Russia invaded Ukraine, in 2014, the current chancellor has until very recently adopted a low profile that French President Emmanuel Macron has taken advantage of. , to try to occupy that leadership position in Europe. Scholz will try to make up lost ground by visiting Kiev on Monday and Moscow on Tuesday after weeks of internal criticism for having made himself invisible during the crisis. In this situation, Schröder, the gas lord or “Putin’s godfather”, as he is also called in Germany, contributes to damaging his image.
The former foreign minister, the analysts consulted agree, destroys the attempts to give an image of unity with the Western partners. “It is affecting Germany’s credibility at an extremely difficult time for the country,” says Rafael Loss, researcher at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). His figure has been linked to Scholz’s reluctance to say publicly that the pipeline will not come on stream if Putin invades Ukraine. What he has defined as “strategic ambiguity” contrasted last week with the forcefulness of Joe Biden: “We will put an end to it,” said the US president.
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Schröder’s friendship with Putin dates back to his years as chancellor. A few days before losing the 2005 elections against Angela Merkel, Schröder laid the groundwork for the construction of Nord Stream 1, the first gas pipeline since 2011 to transport gas directly from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea bed without going through the traditional gas transit countries, such as Ukraine. Less than three weeks after leaving the chancellorship, he starred in an embarrassing revolving-door episode that many still turn a blind eye to: he became chairman of the shareholders’ meeting of Nord Stream AG, the consortium that was to build and operate the gas pipeline that he himself had approved. Over the years, he added another position in the Russian oil company Rosneft and a third on the board of Nord Stream 2, the controversial gas pipeline that will double the amount of gas that comes directly from Russia, currently at the center of the debate as a possible sanction tool against Putin.
the activity of lobbyist Schröder’s has been no secret. Nor is his friendship with Putin. In 2014 she celebrated his 70th birthday in the company of the Russian president, in Saint Petersburg, just weeks after Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea. Already then the criticism rained down on him. “Clearly he represents the interests of Russia, but he uses the prominence of his previous position to influence the speech,” Loss says over the phone.
the weekly Die Zeit has published this week how a network of Social Democratic politicians sponsored by Schröder have been seduced by Russian gas, contributing to increasing Moscow’s energy dependence in recent years. One of them created a foundation with supposed environmental objectives that has actually been dedicated to helping Gazprom avoid US sanctions on Nord Stream 2.
The question now is whether the former foreign minister still has interlocutors in the SPD and in the government. “Schröder has absolutely no influence on German politics,” says Jens Geier, an SPD MEP who met the former chancellor during his first election campaign. On the phone, Geier acknowledges that Schröder damages the credibility of the Scholz Executive, but even relativizes the fact that he was received by SPD politicians last January. “He is seen for what he is, a lobbyist of Russia, and their opinions, as wrong, “he adds. A Social Democrat source who asked not to be quoted assures that in the party Schröder has been seen for years as that older relative who is not quite right in the head but who continues to be invited to meetings out of courtesy.
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