Habeck expresses confidence in maintaining the PCK refinery

PCK chose the works canteen for the works meeting with the Vice Chancellor. But it quickly became clear that the rush of the workforce was too great. And the meeting was summarily moved outside. The smell of grilled sausage spread among the estimated 500 people present. For 15 minutes those responsible pushed tables and chairs around, set up a stage and tightened cordons.

Structurally weak region depends on jobs

However, when Habeck gets a chance to speak, he does not enter the stage but jumps onto a table, much closer to the refinery employees who are listening. The action is obviously spontaneous, his bodyguards startle and quickly reposition themselves. So the Green politician stands there, on the table, with a soda bottle in his hand, his shirt sleeves rolled up. Just a typical Habeck.

But as dynamic as he begins his performance, he is quickly slowed down by reality. Here, in the structurally weak Uckermark, many obviously have no use for Robert Habeck’s cosmopolitan statements.

Large parts of the workforce are preceded by a different sense of solidarity, a different view of Russia as a partner. And they care about their own existence. The refinery is by far the largest employer in the area. 3000 people are directly or indirectly employed at the site. The population of Schwedt has almost halved in recent years.

While Habeck is standing on the table, the employees are gathered around the minister in their green and orange work clothes. They line up in front of the stones that form the oval end of the terrace in front of the company canteen and look down on Habeck. It looks a bit like an amphitheater, but the questions from the employees herd the vice chancellor in front of them more like a bullfight.

“Why should we, our business partners, who have always delivered reliably and on time, shit their bags like that?” asks a PCK employee with regard to the planned oil embargo. “You are not my chancellor,” he says, and then corrects to “not my vice-chancellor.”

“I don’t want to fuck you off”

The Vice Chancellor calmly explains the plan for the refinery. It’s not very simple. Habeck’s open style of communication is a little help, but nothing more. PCK has been supplied with Siberian oil via the Druzhba (“Friendship”) pipeline for decades.

There are connections to the port cities of Rostock and Gdansk in Poland. Deliveries from the national crude oil reserve could also be landed in Rostock. It can be found in Wilhelmshaven and would last for three months. However, the transport capacities are currently not sufficient to simply replace the Druzhba. Habeck is working on changing that in the short term.

“Honestly, you can’t promise that everything will work out perfectly,” he says, and in the next breath promised financial aid from the federal government for the site to support the long-term conversion from oil to hydrogen.

And then there is the problem with the owner. As long as Rosneft holds a majority stake in PCK, the Russian group is unlikely to help people stop using Russian gas. The federal government knows that too. She therefore plays through insolvency, fiduciary administration by the state or, as a last resort, expropriation – “Christian Lindner pays, so to speak,” as Habeck explained.

Habeck was visibly trying to convince the PCK workforce of his plan and to credibly assure them that the refinery in Schwedt would also be planned for the future. “I would appreciate it if you would see me not just as an enemy, but as someone who wants to save the site,” he said. “I don’t want to screw you up or paint your sky pink in any way.”

Reminder “that you have taken an oath of office”

Apparently, many employees didn’t get it. “I just wanted to remind you that you took an oath of office,” said a dark-haired woman, reading her question from a piece of paper. “Yes,” comes the voice from among the other employees.

One of them also asked whether Habeck was really acting in the interests of the Germans and not more in the interests of the Americans. After all, they also bought the regime change in Ukraine.

Habeck argued vigorously against these distorting, historical revisionist statements. “The relativization of a war of aggression is the relativization of the dead,” he clarified. PCK Managing Director Ralf Schairer also helped him. “We don’t show solidarity with war criminals,” he said.

Schairer, who has only been in office for almost six weeks, is faced with a complicated situation. He wants to secure the jobs of his employees, and people buy that statement from him. Also that he supports the federal government within the scope of his possibilities. But of course Schairer is a maniac as long as it’s Rosneft paying his salary.

Habeck’s condemnation of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine repeatedly earned him applause from PCK employees. But with the pro-Russian questioners, the acoustic response was always somewhat greater.

Woidke contradicts Habeck on the open stage

And then Habeck caught up with a contradiction that stood with him on the terrace in front of the company canteen: Brandenburg’s Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD).

Two weeks ago, during protests against oil imports near Schwedt, climate activists tried to interrupt the supply via the Durschba. Habeck condemns the action, but not the basic request. Instead, he campaigned for understanding for climate protectors. “Both sides are a little bit right.”

Woidke grabbed the microphone and disagreed. Such actions are “a criminal offence.” That’s it, it’s over.” That is neither to be understood nor tolerated.

In the Federal Ministry of Economics, they had expected that Schwedt would not be a home game for Habeck. Some AfD-related associations can always be expected in a workforce in this area, it said. Habeck later only said so much: “The type of discussion was special.”

More: “That’s stupid with the dependency, of course”: Schwedt – the city on Moscow’s long leash