The pressure from the SPD on former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is increasing.

In the meantime, four associations of the party have applied for a procedure to exclude him from the party.

Social Democrats from Heidelberg, East/Northeast Leipzig, Essen-Fronhausen/Altendorf and from the Rhine-Palatinate district have submitted corresponding applications.

This was announced by the managing director of the SPD district in Hanover, Christoph Materne, of the German Press Agency on Thursday.

Schröder is registered as a member in this district, which is why the process is ongoing there.

Schröder can now comment on this orally or agree on a written procedure, said the chairman of the arbitration commission, Heiger Scholz, of the "Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung".

Markus Wehner

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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Schröder has been criticized for refusing to resign from his positions at the Russian gas companies Nord Stream 1 and 2 and the oil company Rosneft, despite Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.

Both the SPD leadership and Chancellor Olaf Scholz asked him to do this at the beginning of March.

Schröder is friends with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has so far avoided any public criticism of him.

Schröder traveled to Moscow with his wife Soyeon Schröder-Kim last week to negotiate with Putin about the war.

He did this without involving Chancellor Scholz or the SPD.

Schröder is said to have spoken for several hours with Putin and also with one of Putin's advisors.

The Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, stated that Schröder's mission had failed.

"Unfortunately, nothing came of it," Melnyk told the FAZ

The initiative for the trip came from Schröder, but Kyiv viewed the trip benevolently, as every opportunity should be used to end the war, Melnyk said.

After all, Schröder has a special relationship with Putin;

They also wanted to give him a chance to rehabilitate himself, "despite the great damage he has caused with his policy towards Russia."

Unfortunately, Schröder did not report anything new after his conversation with Putin.

The former Chancellor "only repeated what we already knew from our own talks with the Russian delegation," said Melnyk.

The matter was very disappointing and thus settled for the Ukrainian government.

Before and after his trip to see Putin in Istanbul, Schröder met with a Ukrainian delegation led by Rada MP and businessman Rustem Umerow.

The Turkish government was also involved in the talks, and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu is said to have arranged the meetings.

Umerov, who is of Crimean Tatar origin and belongs to the opposition party Holos, was also a member of the Ukrainian delegation that negotiated with the Russians.