German Health Minister calls on "Putin's friend" Schröder to leave Social Democratic Party

Karl Lauterbach, German Health Minister and member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), has called on former chancellor Gerhard Schröder to leave the party because of his closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Source: Lauterbach on X (Twitter), reported by European Pravda 

Details: Lauterbach noted that he used to have great respect for Gerhard Schröder because he had the courage to implement reforms, even if things didn't go well.

"Today, unfortunately, I am ashamed of him. He no longer has anything to do with the SPD. As a 'friend' of Putin, he should simply leave our party," Lauterbach said.

Lauterbach referenced an interview with Schröder conducted by the dpa news agency. In the interview, the former chancellor made it clear that he was loyal to his friendship with Putin more than two years into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Schröder justified this by saying that his good relations with the Kremlin may help end the war in Ukraine: "We have worked together cleverly for many years. Maybe it can still help to find a solution through negotiations, I don't see any other solutions," he added.

Background:

• Earlier, Schröder supported current Chancellor Olaf Scholz in his refusal to supply Ukraine with Taurus missiles.
• In October last year, Schröder said that the US had supposedly disrupted peace talks between Ukraine and Russia at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, and that Kyiv had invited him to mediate.

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