The Green chairman hopes that the controversial foundation will soon be dissolved.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The Greens have spoken out in favor of the immediate dissolution of the climate foundation set up by the Schwerin state government. “Nord Stream is dead. Now you can dissolve the state foundation immediately,” said the Greens’ federal chairman Omid Nouripour on Friday on Deutschlandfunk. Nouripour hopes this “happens as soon as possible”.
At the beginning of 2021, a climate foundation was set up in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to help complete the pipeline despite threats of US sanctions. As recently published documents show, Nord Stream 2 AG, with the Russian state-owned company Gazprom as the majority shareholder, was directly involved in the preparations for the foundation.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) had admitted that there were talks, but rejected reports that she had been in charge of founding the Nord Stream 2 foundation.
“It is true that there are still a few questions that need to be answered, especially in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania,” said Nouripour. Including the question of whether the controversial climate foundation has to pay gift tax on the 20 million euros paid by Nord Stream 2 AG.
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A current report by the magazine “Cicero” not only brings up a possible tax liability of ten million euros, but also documents are said to have been lost and transactions without tax numbers were created. “You rub your eyes and wonder what this is supposed to be,” Nouripour said. The Greens hope that Schwesig will “actually answer these questions very, very soon”.
The CDU foreign politician Norbert Röttgen had previously suggested that Schwesig resign because of her connections with Russia, but the Prime Minister rejected this. However, the Greens leadership also sees mistakes on the part of the Union: “If we talk about the mistakes in Russia policy in the past, then we shouldn’t reduce it to the SPD. The CDU did a lot wrong with the chancellor at the top of this republic for 16 years,” said Nouripour.
One or the other attack on the SPD would also assume a “distraction from one’s own misconduct”, according to the Green leader.
More: The SPD’s involvement in Russia: Olaf Scholz needs a liberation