Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder will not be expelled from the SPD for the time being.
That was decided by the arbitration commission of the SPD sub-district Hannover region.
Schröder, against whom 17 local associations, district associations and the sub-district of Würzburg had sought party order proceedings, was "not guilty of violating the party order," said a statement by the arbitration commission of the SPD district in Hanover on Monday.
A violation of the party order was "not proven".
Schröder is accused in large parts of the SPD from the district association up to the federal leadership of being too close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, even after he started the war against Ukraine.
Eckhart Lohse
Head of the parliamentary editorial office in Berlin.
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The justification for the rejection of the motions for expulsion states that it is "incompatible" with membership in the SPD to call for a war of aggression or to justify the military attack of one state on another.
"The respondent did not do that," said the SPD.
On the contrary, on the day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, i.e. on February 24 of this year, he said that "Russia's security interests do not (or did) not justify the use of military means".
Schröder also declared that Russia was at war with Ukraine.
However, it is pointed out that it would have been "desirable and appropriate" for a social democrat to express himself more clearly "and not to regard the war as just a mistake".
However, with his statements, Schröder is “not so far outside the program and principles of the SPD that the party no longer has to endure them”.
After the decision of the sub-district arbitration commission, both Schröder and the applicants demanding his expulsion have two weeks to appeal to the Hanover district arbitration commission.