Olaf Scholz may have a bad memory when it comes to the topics “Cum-Ex” and “Warburg”. But apparently, at least according to his stories, he had an unmistakable sense that Vladimir Putin would blackmail Germany and use energy supplies as a “weapon”.: “I was always sure that he would do that,” said the Federal Chancellor at the mechanical engineering summit in Berlin.
However, the SPD politician kept his dark forebodings to himself when he was Labor and Social Affairs Minister (2007 to 2009) and Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister (2018 to 2021) in the service of CDU Chancellor Angela Merkel.
When Scholz then came to power, in December 2021 he declared the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline a “private-sector project”. Internally, he acted very differently that month, the head of government revealed to the bewildered congress guests: he asked the question and passed it on to “my employees” about what would happen “if Russia stopped supplying gas”. But: The only ones who have publicly warned against Putin’s pipelines for years are only the Greens.
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(Photo: Hans Christian Plambeck/laif)
Which brings us to the current state of the traffic light coalition, the smallest member of which has returned to Berlin from state election campaigns badly disheveled. In this situation, FDP leader Christian Lindner switches on “position lights” that others experience as traffic lights – unlike planned, the cabinet could not now decide on the changed operating times of the remaining three German nuclear power plants (NPP), with Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim until spring in backup operation.
Rather, the liberal finance minister advocates letting all reactors (including the Emsland nuclear power plant) continue to run during the current energy crisis and buying new fuel rods if necessary. The Economics Ministry of the antipode Robert Habeck reports on “political disagreements”, the former star of the Greens warns: “We’re running out of time.”
Perhaps the Greens should simply invite the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg to do so in the short term. The 19-year-old also wants to keep the three nuclear power plants running, she told Stern magazine: “It’s not the opinion of ‘Fridays for Future’, but I think it’s currently worse to stop existing nuclear power plants if coal The alternative is.” Greta’s other thesis, according to which none of these problems would exist at all if serious investments had been made in renewable energies earlier, should be even more undisputed.
The recent sparse growth forecasts should be reason enough for the traffic light politicians, who are at odds in relatively petty conflicts, to reconsider their purgatory of vanity. For the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Federal Republic is now at the bottom of the list of major industrialized countries. Here the slowdown in growth is “particularly strong”, we report in our cover story.
In 2022, the German economy will only expand by 1.5 percent, in April the forecast was still 2.1 percent. In 2023, the recession would definitely come with minus 0.3 percent. The federal government is even more pessimistic: It expects only 1.4 percent for this year and minus 0.4 percent for 2023. In view of such future shocks, Olaf Scholz is now in demand as an internal crisis manager.
Another negative news from the German economy reached us exclusively: The urgently needed expansion of mobile networks in Germany is progressing more slowly than planned. There are still too many dead spots in rural areas, only 89 of 600 “white spots” have been closed. Telefónica also only achieves the requirement of serving 98 percent of households with at least 100 Mbit/s in five federal states.
The punctual supply promised at the end of the year no longer seems possible, according to a confidential evaluation by the Federal Network Agency in August. A member of the Advisory Board at the Federal Network Agency complains that the providers’ original assurances have sometimes degenerated into a “farce”. Its President Klaus Müller recently wrote to Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Telefónica and 1&1 to “make every effort” to “quickly meet the coverage requirements”. Kurt Tucholsky knew: “I believe everyone who seeks the truth. I don’t believe anyone who found her.”
(Photo: AP)
In the Ukraine war there is again a double reality to register. On the one hand, the Russian army continues to bomb civilian targets in Ukrainian cities, on the other hand, the Kremlin intersperses possible peace talks with the USA. When the heads of state and government of the 20 most important countries (G20) meet on the yoga and digital nomad island of Bali in mid-November, Moscow will be open to a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden, said Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Russian state television. One would be willing to “listen to any proposals for peace talks”, for example mediated by Turkey.
However, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is currently in Berlin, does not rely on Biden for such meetings and said at an event: “What I’m saying is going to sound brutal. But hope for peace is Donald Trump.” As Mister Attack with his harsh choice of words (“war criminals”, “butchers”), the current US President is not suitable as a negotiator for Putin talks. Orban’s credo: “The ceasefire must not be between Russia and Ukraine, but between America and Russia.”
Possibly the Hungarian Putin understander sees himself as a kind of mediator. However, he could be underestimating the scope given that the US doesn’t give the impression that they are waiting for soothing words from Russia. Rather, the White House wants to use new measures against the Saudi Arabian government to show everyone how little they think of the Gulf state’s decision to cut oil production alongside Putin.
Washington had unsuccessfully asked the ruler Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) to wait a month with the OPEC number. President Joe Biden believes “we should reassess the bilateral relationship with Saudi Arabia,” a government spokesman said. The little presidential flirt with MbS a few weeks ago during Biden’s state visit is history again. Influential Democratic politician Robert Menendez has already threatened to freeze arms sales and security services deals in the Arab kingdom. In this area, the German armaments company Hensoldt, in which the federal government has a stake, has become behaving erratically by initiating deals.
And then there’s US rapper Kanye West, 45. Apparently, he assumes that he is Adidas – because his new “Yeezy” sneakers are popular and, according to estimates, he contributes a few percent to the Franconian sporting goods manufacturer’s total sales. The musician has accused Adidas of copying the design of the “Yeezy” merchandise he designed and using it for his own Adidas models. He also provoked, for example, by having the inscription “White Lives Matter” printed on shirts – the saying is widespread in the right-wing scene.
Mr. West then circulated images of a meeting with Adidas managers via video clip, in which he plays a porn video on his cell phone and tells one of the Adidas people whose voice reminds him suspiciously of one of the porn performers. After continued arguments between Star and management, the three-star group recently decided to put the cooperation to the test: “A successful partnership is based on mutual respect and shared values.”
The reaction is new, so far Adidas has always been silent about the cooperation, which has been running since 2015 and will continue until 2026, for which West receives sufficient royalties, probably several hundred million dollars a year. The online portal “Business of Fashion” reports that Adidas has already offered to end the cooperation in return for a billion dollar settlement. “You can see what God thinks of money by looking at the people he gives it to,” wrote the writer Peter Bamm (1897 to 1975).
I wish you a peaceful, stimulating day.
It greets you cordially
Her
Hans Jürgen Jakobs
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