GERMANY: Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder launches his memoirs "Decisions - My Life in Politics" in Berlin

Gerhard Schroeder said on Thurday (October 26) he wrote his wave-making memoirs to get out of a rut he fell into after leaving office and insisted he left politics for good even if he believes he did not really "lose" the 2005 election. The former chancellor was at his entertaining best deflecting tough questions at the launch of his book "Decisions - My Life in Politics" before a crowd of over 300 journalists, political leaders and German novelist Siegfried Lenz. Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker presented the book. Schroeder used his patented humour to defend his widely criticised decision to publish excerpts of his 544-page memoir in advance in the very newspaper, mass circulation Bild, that he had savagely attacked a year ago for campaigning against him. He also dismissed, with help from Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker who presented the book, suggestions there was anything unsavoury about his bear-hug filled friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "The first months (after leaving office) were not easy," Schroeder, 62, said when asked for the book's central message. "I didn't want to stop but was forced to because of the results. "I realised I needed two things: to come to terms with the new situation and find something reasonable to occupy myself with. Some people now say: 'He hasn't come to terms with it'. But I have. I am completely at peace with myself." "Decisions - My Life in Politics" was rushed into bookstores on Thursday, two days ahead of schedule, due to high demand, the publishers said. Its first print is 160,000 copies and is to be translated into eight other languages. Schroeder reportedly will earn 1 million euros for his book. Schroeder is now a private businessman who among other jobs oversees a controversial Russian-German natural gas pipeline project.

ITN Source | October 27, 2006

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