Former chancellor Schroder sues the Bundestag.
Having just passed the expulsion attempt from the Social Democratic Party, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder goes on the offensive and sues a constitutional body.
Former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder is suing the Bundestag to restore his privileges as former chancellor. The 78-year-old is asking for the former chancellor’s office to be made available to him again along with the employees, his lawyer, Michael Nagel, told the German news agency, dpa. The lawsuit has been filed at Berlin’s Administrative Court, Nagel said.
In a statement from the chancellor’s law firm, it is said that the decision of the budget committee of the Bundestag to remove the funds made available to former chancellors, as well as the suspension of the use of the office, are legal violations.
It is claimed that the former chancellor no longer fulfills the commitments arising from the “subsequent service obligations”. But it is not defined that “what are the subsequent obligations of the service, how is it determined whether or not to take them into consideration and what procedure should be followed”.
“It is written on the front of the entire procedure” that there are other reasons “for the new regulations” that played a role in the budget committee’s decision. Such decisions are reminiscent of an absolutist state and have no place in a democratic state, it is further stated in the statement of the former chancellor’s law firm.
Former chancellor Schröder was heavily criticized after the start of Putin’s war in Ukraine because of his commitment to Russian corporations and his closeness to Putin. It is true that the budget committee did not explicitly argue the decision it made with Schroder’s work on energy concerns or his attitude towards the war in Ukraine.
The expenses of the former chancellor’s personnel cost the state treasury 400,000 euros last year. While former chancellor Schröder continues to receive the pension of 8,300 euros even after the decision for the office, as well as the protection with bodyguards.