The first reactions in Germany after Putin proposed Schroeder as a mediator in the war in Ukraine: “This must be analyzed carefully”
The initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who proposed his friend and former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder as a mediator in the war in Ukraine, caused contradictory political reactions in Germany on Sunday, reports AFP.
Asked on Saturday who his preferred candidate was for resuming dialogue with the Europeans, the President said he “personally” preferred Gerhard Schroeder, with Vladimir Putin saying the war was “coming to an end”.
In power from 1998 to 2005, the 82-year-old social democrat has remained a staunch supporter of the Kremlin boss for two decades.
His refusal to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 brought him into disrepute within the SPD, the minority party in Friedrich Merz's coalition, and cost him some of his advantages as former chancellor.
He also had key roles in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipeline projects, as well as a seat on the board of Russian oil company Rosneft, from which he resigned in 2022.
Last year, the former German chancellor announced that he was suffering from “severe burnout” and checked himself into a clinic, right in the middle of an investigation into the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
“This needs to be looked at carefully”
A mediator between Russia and the European Union “simply cannot be Putin's friend,” said Michael Roth, former Social Democrat chairman of the Bundestag's foreign affairs committee, in an interview with the Tagesspiegel newspaper.
“The main thing is that [acest mediator] to be, first of all, accepted by Ukraine. Neither Moscow nor we can decide for Kiev”, he added.
But other people within the SPD, crossed by a pacifist current, are more open to Vladimir Putin's proposal.
“This must be analyzed carefully, in close collaboration with our European partners, and must not be categorically ruled out from the start,” stressed Adis Ahmetović, the SPD's spokesman for foreign affairs in the Bundestag, for the weekly Spiegel.
“If we don't want Putin and Trump to decide the future of Ukraine by themselves, we have to take advantage of every chance. Even if it is tiny,” added MP Ralf Stegner in the pages of Spiegel magazine.
“What do we have to lose?” says the pro-Russian opposition
In opposition, the idea is supported by BSW, a left-wing pro-Russian party created in early 2024.
“We should turn to the former chancellor. What do we have to lose?”, party president Fabio De Masi told AFP on Sunday.
“There are serious doubts that it would be a good idea,” Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, a member of the leadership of Germany's liberal FDP party, told the Funke group newspapers.
