Regina Laska wrote that CDA chairman Dennis Radtke (CDU) referred to Gerhard Schröder's recent appearance in Moscow in the Tagesspiegel as a "case of moral bankruptcy" and called on the SPD to expel the former chancellor from the party. Laska agreed with him. Schröder was too ill to testify before a parliamentary inquiry but fit enough to celebrate Vladimir Putin's birthday in Moscow and accept a new supervisory board position in Russia. According to Laska, the SPD state chairpersons in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg are now also demanding a new expulsion procedure. The SPD district of Upper Palatinate voted unanimously in favor of it on Saturday. Schleswig-Holstein's SPD leader Ulf Kämpfer stated that the paths of the party and Schröder had parted ways many years ago. Laska asked why Schröder was still a member of the SPD. Previous expulsion procedures had failed in 2022 and 2023. It is not only about Schröder's differing stance on Russia policy, Laska wrote, but also about his demonstrative loyalty to Putin, who has been waging a war of annihilation against Ukraine for more than four and a half years. She also pointed out that SPD foreign policy expert Ralf Stegner had praised Schröder's visit to Putin. Pierre Orthen, chairman of the SPD local club in Baden-Württemberg's Leutenbach, publicly questioned whether this was in line with the responsibilities of a member of the Bundestag's Foreign Affairs Committee. Laska wrote that Stegner had held talks with Kremlin-affiliated representatives in Baku in April 2025. It apparently concerned the future of the Petersburg Dialogue, which Schröder co-founded with Putin in 2001. In June 2026, Stegner was said to have praised Schröder's connection to Putin; now he had attended Putin's birthday party. Laska asked what these contacts had achieved for peace in Ukraine and wrote that anyone justifying such talks as efforts for peace must also be able to explain what they had accomplished. #Schröder #Ukraine #SPD (translated)
