The CDU had an easy time on Monday.

No sooner had the SPD announced in Hanover in the early afternoon that Gerhard Schröder would not be expelled from the party than the first parliamentary secretary of the Union faction rubbed salt into the festering wound that the comrades' dispute with their former chancellor had long since become.

"Gerhard Schröder is dancing on the SPD leadership's nose - to the detriment of the country," said Thorsten Frei of the FAZ. "Today's decision shows that the matter has completely slipped away from the Social Democrats." Hesitation" of the SPD chairmen Lars Klingbeil and Saskia Esken, but also that of Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan Weil "and last but not least" that of Chancellor Olaf Scholz are now taking revenge.

The SPD must now do everything

Eckhart Lohse

Head of the parliamentary editorial office in Berlin.

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The SPD is in a difficult position.

It did not come as a complete surprise that the arbitration commission of the SPD sub-district Region Hannover decided not to throw Schröder out.

It was also clear that Schröder's close relationship with the warlord Putin and the former Chancellor's only moderate criticism of his murderous rage in Ukraine would not have been resolved even if Schröder had been expelled from the party as a problem for the SPD.

Especially not in time for the Lower Saxony state elections in October.

But Schröder can still triumph like this.

17 sections of the SPD had applied for a party order procedure against the former chancellor, mostly local groups, as well as three district associations, the subdistrict of Würzburg and the "SPD Department 15 Kollwitzplatz" in Berlin-Pankow.

All in vain.

Party leader Klingbeil therefore only had a tight-lipped comment on Monday afternoon: "The arbitration commission in Hanover has made a legal decision," he said.

"One thing is certain for us: Gerhard Schröder is politically isolated with his positions in the SPD."

No violation of party rules

The arbitration commission of the Hanover Region sub-district had negotiated on July 14th.

Chairman Heiger Scholz signed the nine-page report with the arguments and conclusions, and it was published on Monday after the last votes had been taken.

The respondent, i.e. Schröder, was "not guilty of violating the party order", according to the decision.

According to the Political Parties Act, however, a member can only be expelled if he or she "willfully violates the statutes or seriously violates the principles or rules of the party, thereby causing it serious harm" (paragraph 10).

The arbitration commission extensively examined Schröder's behavior and his statements on Putin's war, as well as his friendship with the Russian president, which Schröder never made a secret of, to determine whether this had caused damage to the SPD that would justify an expulsion.

A press release from the SPD in Hanover states that Schröder was not guilty of violating party rules, or that "such a violation could not be proven."