Schröder not invited to conference of his party

The leadership of Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) will not invite former chancellor and party leader Gerhard Schröder to the federal party conference in December, reported dpa.

"We will keep it the way we have kept it now at the celebration of the 160th anniversary of the SPD," party leader Saskia Esken told dpa on Monday.

Unlike other former party leaders, Schröder did not receive an invitation to the anniversary ceremony last Tuesday at the party headquarters in Berlin.

It is also a tradition at party conferences that former party leaders are invited.

Schröder was present at some meetings of the highest party body after his chancellorship and even appeared as a speaker - most recently in 2017. He will now have to stay away from the next party conference from December 8 to 10 in Berlin.

"I can no longer recognize in Gerhard Schröder the former chancellor and former party leader. I see him as a businessman pursuing his business interests," said Esken.

Schröder, now 79, was chancellor from 1998 to 2005 and party leader from 1999 to 2004. After being voted out as head of government, he worked for Russian energy companies for many years and is still considered a close friend of Russia's President Vladimir Putin, whom he did not renounce even after Moscow's attack on Ukraine.

A few weeks after the war began, Schröder even visited Putin in Moscow - allegedly to mediate.

After the Russian invasion, the party leadership repeatedly distanced itself clearly from Schröder and declared him isolated in the party. However, a party expulsion procedure initiated by 17 party branches failed.

For Esken, the discussion about Schröder is now over. "The SPD has important tasks as a party and as a leading coalition partner - we are developing programmatically and contributing to the work of the coalition. In this respect, we have more important things to do than talk about Gerhard Schröder."