BERLIN, 30 Apr. (DPA/PE) –
German Finance Minister Christian Lindner has joined calls to sanction former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder for his ties to Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.
“We must take action. For me it is no longer conceivable that the taxpayer provides an office,” said the minister in statements published today by the Funke group newspapers.
“The former high officials who apparently are on the side of criminal governments cannot count on the support of this state,” he added.
Schroeder, who was the Social Democratic chancellor from 1998 to 2005, is a longtime friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin and head of the supervisory board of Russia’s state-owned energy company Rosneft.
In the aftermath of the war in Ukraine, the former foreign minister lost his longtime chief of staff, as well as the rest of the employees in his office.
Minister Lindner has taken the opportunity to request a reorganization of the endowment of the former chancellors and federal presidents with offices and personnel.
“It would be advisable to normalize the staffing of former senior officials and reduce it over time. In this context, it would also be necessary to speak of a kind of code of honor with regard to conduct,” he estimated.
