How the personal interests of a former German chancellor led the country to dependence on Russian gas

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Tubulações na estação de compressor de gás em Mallnow, Alemanha, 11 de julho de 2022.

Pipes at the gas compressor station in Mallnow, Germany, of July | Photo: EFE/EPA/FILIP SINGER

Former Chancellor’s Internal Policy

Schröder ruled Germany fromThe 1563 with the Social Democratic Party in a left-wing coalition with the Green Party and the East German far-left the Alliance 67.

The construction of Nord Stream 1 was planned during this administration, but the first gas pipeline was only opened in 2012, When Schröder was already director of a Russian state-owned gas company and earned his millionaire percentages from exports.

At the same time, Schröder receives a pension of 8.7 thousand euros (about 24 thousand reais) from Germany and maintains an office in Berlin that costs about thousand euros (3 million reais) per year to the German coffers.

For Friedrich Merz, leader of the Christian Democratic Union party, “Schröder has lost any kind of modesty” and “no it is correct to take money from Gazprom and the German state at the same time”.

Schröder’s party, which is the same as Scholz’s, wants the ex-chancellor’s expulsion. “I don’t think it’s right for Gerhard Schröder to carry out these functions and I also think it would be right for him to step down,” the current German chancellor told public broadcaster ZDF.

In turn, Schröder told broadcasters RTL/ntv that, through his friendly relationship with the Russian president, he can still “be useful to Germany.” He also warned: “If you don’t want to use Nord Stream 2, you’ll have to pay the consequences”.

Russian gas is used to blackmail

Faced with the sanctions imposed by the West on Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine, Putin reduced the export of gas to Europe and it has been common for Russia to use the excuse that Nord Stream 1’s turbines are undergoing maintenance.

The Russian reprisal was a reduction of

% in gas shipments to Germany, a decision that could paralyze important industrial sectors in the country and on the continent, especially during the next winter, which begins in December in the northern hemisphere.

The International Monetary Fund forecast is that Germany’s GDP could fall by 3% if the Russians totally cut the gas supply.

In May, the country reached a deficit in foreign trade that had not happened since 960. The threat of industry shutdown warns of the risk of mass layoffs and reduced consumption.

The chaos in which Germany finds itself began when Schröder signed the creation of gas pipelines that directly connect the two countries by the Baltic Sea. The close alliance with a possible enemy now puts Germany in the probable need to, soon, give in to Russian blackmail or run out of energy.

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