SPD co-chair Saskia Esken has asked former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to leave the SPD.

Schröder has only acted as a businessman for years, Esken said on Deutschlandfunk on Monday.

"We should stop perceiving him as (...) former chancellor."

Several applications for a party exclusion would already be examined.

After a widely acclaimed interview, the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst (CDU), also called for consequences for Gerhard Schröder.

"The interview in the "New York Times" is quite disturbing, and there must be consequences," Wüst told "Bild TV" on Sunday.

"The entire SPD leadership has said: If Gerhard Schröder sticks to his well-paid mandates with Putin, he can no longer be a member of the SPD." Now he says that that is exactly what he intends to do.

"That's why the SPD is now called upon to put their words into action."

Schröder has been heavily criticized in Germany for not giving up his posts at Russian energy companies despite the Russian attack on Ukraine.

The SPD leadership had already distanced itself from Schröder.

At the end of February, the SPD chairmen Saskia Esken and Lars Klingbeil asked him in a letter to resign from his position at the state-owned company.

Klitschko: Why doesn't Schröder live in Moscow?

In a New York Times article published on Saturday, Schröder said he would resign if Russian President Vladimir Putin stopped supplying gas to Germany and the European Union.

However, he does not expect such a scenario.

Should it come to that, “then I would resign”.

From which post exactly, Schröder did not say.

Schröder is the chairman of the supervisory board of the Russian state-owned energy company Rosneft and chairman of the shareholders' committee of the pipeline company Nord Stream.

He is also still entered in the relevant commercial register as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nord Stream 2 AG.

In the course of the debate about Schröder's post, Wüst suggested a new regulation for the salaries of former chancellors on "Bild TV".

Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said freezing Schröder's accounts should be considered if he continues in his post.

Klitschko also criticized Schröder's statements in the New York Times.

"In view of his propaganda for the Kremlin, one wonders why Schröder lives in Hanover and not in Moscow."