"Gerhard Schröder is not guilty of a violation of party regulations, because no violation could be proven against him," explained the SPD section of Hanover (north), the stronghold of the former Chancellor, in a press release.
"The arbitration committee considers that the area of personal friendly relations is part of the area of private life", she added, nevertheless considering "desirable" a "clear distancing" vis-à-vis M . Cheese fries.
Currently in power, Germany's oldest political party has been embroiled in embarrassment for months because of the man who, now 78 years old and having been head of the German government from 1998 to 2005, continues to cultivate his ties with the Russian head of state despite the war in Ukraine.
An appeal against this decision can still be lodged by members of the SPD within one month.
An option considered by some: "We have not changed our position that Mr. Schröder must be expelled from the SPD", declared the chairman of a local branch of the SPD in Essen (west), Ali Kaan Sevinc , in the daily Rheinische Post.
For the leader of this party, Lars Klingbeil, the temporary failure of the exclusion takes nothing away from the fact that "politically, Gerhard Schröder is isolated with his positions within the SPD".
The decision is "bad" for the "credibility of the SPD", but also "bad for our whole country", judged for his part Thorsten Frei, a member of the conservative opposition.
- Supporter of Nord Stream -
About fifteen local sections of the SPD had demanded sanctions against Mr. Schröder - going as far as his exclusion - because of his links with Vladimir Putin but also of his activities within Russian energy groups.
SPD co-leader Saskia Esken and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said they were in favor of his dismissal from the party.
Mr. Schröder, also very involved in Nord Stream AG, the controversial gas pipelines between Russia and Germany, has long remained silent.
Unlike most of the former European leaders present before the war in the governing bodies of Russian companies, he was slow to resign from his various functions.
After several calls to this effect, the former leader, the mentor of the current Chancellor Olaf Scholz, resolved in May to leave the board of directors of the oil company Rosneft. He then announced that he would give up entering that of the gas giant Gazprom.
He also asked Berlin to reconsider the German position on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, whose construction ended at the beginning of the year but whose start was blocked by the German government as the invasion approached. from Ukraine.
- "Business man" -
"I will not give up my opportunities for discussions with President Putin," he warned again on July 10 in the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
After his recent meeting with the Russian head of state in Moscow, he said that Russia wanted a "negotiated solution" in Ukraine, remarks described as "disgusting" by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Ms. Esken had for her part judged that Mr. Schröder was not acting “not as an ex-chancellor, but as a businessman”.
"With everything he does and says, he acts in his own interest and that of his business partners," she added.
In Germany, Angela Merkel's predecessor has already had some of her advantages as a former chancellor taken away, namely an office and dedicated staff in the German parliament.
Mr. Schröder, who in the early 2000s established a friendly relationship with the Russian president, whom he described in 2004 as a "perfect democrat", also remains threatened with sanctions by MEPs.
