Under communism, a deficit economy was a natural consequence of state ownership. Germany has now risen up to prove that it is possible to deliberately create a deficit economy, and even to make impoverishment a worthwhile and happy goal. It is just a matter of surrounding it with sufficiently lofty justifications and ensuring that impoverishment only affects the stupid people and certainly not the elite who make it happen. Analysis by Krisztina Koenen.
So far, deprivation has been desirable and morally necessary mainly because Germany has felt called to save our planet from climate doom. Now, however, there is a more topical reason.
The less energy we use, the more damage we do to Putin, since it is the duty of every German to support the struggle of the Ukrainian people, even at the cost of personal sacrifice.
In Baden Württemberg, for example, Minister of Agriculture Peter Hauk, who belongs to the Christian Democratic CDU, said:
„In winter, wearing a sweater, you can survive very well at a room temperature of 15 degrees Celsius.”
The former head of state Joachim Gauck fully agreed with him and gave the exact reason why:
„It’s OK to be cold for freedom. And we can safely endure a few years with less happiness and pleasure.”
A „warm sweater day” has already been introduced in schools and kindergartens in Düsseldorf, which an NGO would make compulsory everywhere — as part of the fight for „climate and peace.” Every day, the mainstream media are lewdly coloring up what more we could give up in the future to harm Putin, such as travel, cars, flying, electricity and larger, well-heated homes.
For the Greens, impoverishing the people has been an agenda from the start.
„Fasting for climate protection and climate justice”
– has been a popular slogan, but in the meantime, the hunger propaganda has been enriched with new justifications:
„We can fight Mr. Putin by eating less meat.”
Cem Özdemir, the Greens’ federal minister for agriculture, has set the task, and Robert Habeck, the Green super-minister, also believes that
„anyone who wants to harm Putin is saving energy.”
There is indeed a shortage of gas and diesel in Germany, not because Russia is not supplying it, but because German energy production is increasingly dependent on the arbitrary weather. Even in September, before the Russian attack on Ukraine began, gas storage facilities were almost empty. Why? Well, because in 2021 there was little wind and little sunshine, and so the missing energy, mainly electricity, had to be produced with gas. In other words, the lack of nuclear power plants, which have already been shut down, is becoming more and more pronounced, but fortunately there is the war in Ukraine, which explains everything.
We have already reported that the Federal Grid Inspectorate has been in talks with industry and energy representatives to prepare for the gas crisis. Several industrial plants that use gas have received letters from their suppliers announcing that in the future they may only be supplied with a certain proportion of the gas or that they will be cut off completely. According to an official from the network inspectorate,
„the meetings were held to prepare the industry for the shutdowns that would become unavoidable in the event of a gas supply crisis. Private households are protected by special laws and have legal priority over industry.”
Robert Habeck, the Green super-minister for economic affairs and energy, reacted immediately to the shortage. The real solution, he said, is to install more wind turbines. Or,
if you double the number of generators, you’ll have twice as many generators up and running in the event of a wind shortage as before, which will be a big win indeed.
He continues to reject the continued running of nuclear power plants with ostensible arguments, and his party colleague Winfried Kretschmann, the prime minister of Baden-Württemberg, immediately blew up the cooling tower of the shut-down nuclear power plant in Philipsburg to make sure that no one would think of starting it up again. Instead, Habeck traveled to Qatar to replace the evil Putin’s gas supplies with those of the oil sheiks who oppress women, punish homosexuals with the death penalty, and finance Arab, Israeli-killing terrorism.
On his return home after the talks, the minister was very optimistic about his trip to Qatar, but just a few days later, Qatari Energy Minister al-Kaabi had a different interpretation of the meeting.
„It will take years to develop something”
– he told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Al-Kaabi does not see how Qatar can replace Russian supplies.
„No one can do it alone. It is simply ridiculous today to claim that anyone, even Qatar, can replace these supplies. It is stupid to say that, and it is not going to happen.”
He also contradicted the claim that a long-term cooperation agreement had been signed during the visit. No such treaty exists, he said, but Qatar is very interested in the business relationship.
Habeck also embellished reality, to put it mildly, with another statement. In an interview, he claimed that he had already succeeded in reducing Russian oil supplies from 35 percent to 25 percent and gas supplies from 50 percent to 40 percent. This miracle was achieved because energy importers simply did not renew their Russian contracts. Whether there would be new contracts and with whom they would be concluded, the minister was tight-lipped.
High energy prices, especially for petrol and diesel (now between €2.10 and €2.40 per liter), are hitting industrial plants and the population hard. In March, lorry drivers demonstrated in Cologne and several other cities, announcing that if something is not done to mitigate the price increase, many transport companies will shut down, which will obviously lead to big problems even in the food supply.
Since 56.63% of the price of fuel, or more than half of it, is tax (19% VAT, plus an energy tax and a carbon tax), a tax cut would be enough. But neither the Greens nor the Social Democrats are willing to do this, as higher taxes due to high energy prices are fattening the greedy state. Instead, they have devised a bureaucratic monstrosity:
For three months they would cut the price of petrol by 30 cents and diesel by 15 cents.
There’s no explanation for the difference, except perhaps that the greens hate diesel. In addition, every taxpayer gets a €300 energy contribution. Not immediately, of course, but next year when they file their tax return. Pensioners will get nothing, and the fuel subsidy is also on hold, perhaps until June, because unfortunately parliament does not have time to deal with it. However, another important restriction for the Greens has been smuggled into the benefits package: As part of the legislative package,
the installation of gas heating will be banned from 2024,
so that everyone can heat their homes with electricity that doesn’t exist, and the state will finally have the power to decide when to hold a “warm sweater day.”
There is much talk abroad and in Hungary that the German Greens are now facing reality as a result of the Ukraine crisis and are therefore starting to be more normal. Unfortunately, that is not the case. As you can see, rather than saying goodbye to their insane economic and human-damaging programs, they want to speed up the process of decarbonization that they have announced.
In the meantime, the German citizen is getting used to scarcity. The state railways have been forced to cancel several services because there is not enough electricity in the system. Some motorways have had to be closed because bridges and tunnels are unmaintained and life-threatening. Grocery stores are seeing a proliferation of empty shelves; there is no cooking oil, dry pasta, baby food, and frequent shortages of toilet paper. In the eyes of the Greens, this is not only not a problem, but a desirable one, as it helps save Ukraine and the climate.
