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Gerhard Schröder in March 2024
Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa
Some Social Democrats would like to get rid of the former Chancellor, but Gerhard Schröder will at least get mail for his birthday. Despite all the differences, both Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the SPD leadership congratulate the ex-chancellor and former party leader on his 80th birthday this Sunday.
“As usual, the Federal Chancellor congratulates the former Chancellor on his special birthday in the form of a congratulatory letter,” a government spokeswoman told the dpa news agency when asked. An SPD spokesman explained that the SPD chairmen Saskia Esken and Lars Klingbeil had "congratulated their predecessor Gerhard Schröder" in writing on his 80th birthday.
Schröder was born on April 7, 1944 in Mossenberg in the Lippe district of North Rhine-Westphalia. He was Chancellor from 1998 to 2005 and chairman of the SPD from 1999 to 2004. Because he did not break off his friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin after Russia's attack on Ukraine and continued to work as a lobbyist for the Russian energy industry, the party leadership broke with him. However, a party expulsion procedure against him filed by several SPD branches failed last year.
In 2014, the SPD honored its former chancellor and former chairman on his 70th birthday - shortly after the Russian annexation of Ukrainian Crimea - with a ceremony in the Berlin art museum Hamburger Bahnhof. That won't happen this time. Instead, Schröder will celebrate privately in Berlin on April 27th. The guest list is still being kept under wraps. “My wife does that, and it’s a secret,” said Schröder in the dpa interview. »I know that friends will definitely be invited. But I don’t know any more details.”
svs/dpa