Berlin, Germany - Gerhard Schröder, the former German chancellor, has strongly criticized the growing influence of religious conservatives in the United States while at the same time defending his close friendship with President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
In a lengthy interview in Der Spiegel, the weekly news magazine, and with Bild am Sonntag, Schröder dismissed suggestions that he was anti-American because he opposed the U.S.-led war against Iraq.
The interviews come just days before Schröder 544-page autobiography, "My Life in Politics," is published. It traces the rise of a working class child, whose father was killed during World War II, to the top of German politics.
Schröder told Bild am Sonntag that his meetings with President George W Bush were "pleasant," even though Schröder, along with President Jacques Chirac of France, had opposed Bush's plans to invade Iraq. Schröder's critics had accused him of using strong anti- war rhetoric to win a second term, which he did in 2002.
Schröder said he was "anything but anti-American, even though he openly challenged U.S. policy in Iraq. In the Der Spiegel interview, he described how he had tears in his eyes as he watched the events of Sept. 11, 2001, on television. "It was important to me that Germany fulfill its requirements as an ally," he said.
But when it came to the planning for the Iraq war, Schröder, referring to Bush, told Der Spiegel that "if a person adopts a policy based on what he gleans from his prayers, in other words, a personal talk with God, it can lead to difficulties in democracy."
Schröder went on to criticize the growing role of religion in U.S. politics.
"We rightly criticize that in most Islamic states, the role of religion for society and the character of the role of law are not clearly separated," he said. "But we fail to recognize that in the U.S.A., the Christian fundamentalists and their interpretation of the Bible have similar tendencies."
When asked by Der Spiegel if he still believed Putin was an "impeccable democrat," as Schröder himself called him during one of his several meetings with the Russian president in 2005, he replied: "I have nothing to correct."
Putin and Schröder had established an unusually close personal relationship. While most German leaders eventually forge close contacts with whoever is in power in Moscow, Schröder adopted two Russian children. Moreover, he became a member of the board of a company owned by Gazprom, the Russian state-owned gas monopoly giant and one of the most powerful companies in Russia.
When Putin visited Berlin in September 2005, less than two weeks before parliamentary elections, he and Schröder put the final touches to the construction of a German-Russian gas pipeline that would run under the Baltic Sea and for the first time directly allow Gazprom to directly send gas from Russia to its markets in Western Europe. Immediately after the election, the defeated Schröder was appointed to a new company charged with overseeing the project.
In the interview with Der Spiegel, Schröder said the elections had nothing to do with his new job and defended the joint venture.