Germany’s ruling coalition will seek to deprive former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of official perks such as chauffeurs on Thursday for his obstinate refusal to cut ties with Russian energy behemoths.

Schroeder will lose offices and employees paid for by taxpayers at an annual cost of around 400,000 euros ($421,000) under an application made by the three parties forming the government.

“The budget committee notes that the former chancellor Schroeder no longer upholds the continuing obligations of his office,” said an application due to be put before the committee Thursday.

His office “will therefore be suspended”, said the document seen by AFP.

Schroeder will however continue to benefit from police protection.

Despite a huge national outcry, Schroeder has stubbornly refused to quit his posts with Russian energy giants Rosneft and Gazprom following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who like Schroeder is from the Social Democratic Party, has also publicly urged the former leader to give up his Russian jobs, but to no avail.

Schroeder, who was Germany’s chancellor from 1998 to 2005, is chairman of the board of directors of Russian oil giant Rosneft.

The 78-year-old is also due to join the supervisory board gas giant Gazprom in June.

The gas group is behind the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia, which has been halted by Scholz in one of the West’s first responses to the war in Ukraine.

Schroeder himself signed off on the first Nord Stream in his final weeks in office, and currently heads the pipeline’s shareholders’ committee.

Scholz’s coalition is also seeking to amend the rules on official privileges accorded automatically to former chancellors with the extraordinary application to remove Schroeder’s perks.

The document proposes that in the future, privileges be granted only to those who demonstrate “continuing responsibility towards their office,” rather than solely on their “status.”