SPD politician Michael Roth does not rule out EU sanctions against former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.
"Another indication of the tragedy of the Schröder case is that we must seriously discuss sanctions against a former Chancellor who has become a Russian energy lobbyist," said the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Bundestag of the German Press Agency.
“The European Union has to keep checking who is jointly responsible for this war, who justifies and defends it or plays it down.
Ultimately, the EU must decide on this.”
Schröder has been heavily criticized for not giving up his posts in several Russian energy companies despite the Russian attack on Ukraine.
In his first interview since the beginning of the war, published in the New York Times over the weekend, he called the war a mistake but did not distance himself from his longtime friend, Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Party leader Saskia Esken then asked Schröder on Monday to resign from the party after almost 60 years of SPD membership.
"At the latest after this underground interview in the "New York Times" the chapter SPD and Gerhard Schröder is over once and for all," said Roth.
"It hurts me and it embarrasses me as someone who twice elected Gerhard Schröder Chancellor." Not only the SPD had to bear the damage, but all of Germany.
"And that's why I'm making the appeal to spare this party a month-long party order process and to draw the conclusion myself, because he should feel that he is no longer wanted in our party."