New secretary general of Germany's ruling party sees Putin's friend in the ranks of his political party

In Germany, the new Secretary General of the SPD, 55-year-old Matthias Mearsch, praises the success of former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, despite the latter's criticism of his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Written by UNN with reference to Stern.

The new SPD Secretary General Matthias Mirsch has made it clear that he sees controversial former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder as part of the party. When asked whether there should be a place for Schröder in German social democracy, Mearsch replied: "Yes. Otherwise, Gerhard Schroeder would have to be expelled from the party.

"I can appreciate the work of his life as a whole, especially as the head of the Hanover County, even if I have a fundamentally different view of Putin and the attack on Ukraine," Mearsch said.

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In April, the new SPD general secretary was one of the few Social Democrats to attend Schroeder's anniversary.

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Gerhard Schroeder was Chancellor from 1998 to 2005 and leader of the SPD party from 1999 to 2004. Scholz then became the chairman of the supervisory board of Nord Stream AG, 51% of which was owned by the Russian energy giant Gazprom.

Matthias Mearsch previously headed the party's branch in Hanover, where former Chancellor Schroeder began his career.

Since 2005, Mearsch has been a member of the Bundestag; he was deputy chairman of the SPD parliamentary group; since 2015, Mearsch has become a representative of the so-called parliamentary left, and in recent months has been repeatedly discussed as a possible successor to the leader of the SPD parliamentary group, Rolf Mützenich.

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