German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 20/56,
pp. 6151-6152.
Right honorable Herr President. Right honorable ladies and
gentlemen. Dear countrymen.
I think there is for a question time no more important theme
than precisely this theme of blackout. This today we have also seen in what concerns
a blackout in question 7, unanswered by the government.
Kassem Taher Saleh (Greens): You were not even on the floor!
That is what agitates the citizens, that is what agitates
the Mittelstand, what agitates the
economy, what agitates industry. And then of course is added the destructive
scenario of yesterday, the sabotage attack on Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2.
Timon Gremmels (SPD): You know more, or what?
The loud silence of the Federal government actually shows
that here up to now no answers were given. Therefore I think it is important
that we here speak of it in the plenary debate.
Of the background and the responsibility, we presently know
little to nothing. One thing is established: It was directed against Germany,
against our economy and this also shows how amazing we are.
Michael Kruse (FDP): Economic war!
In consideration of the present situation, I will not here
today undertake to name a guilty party as has been already done by leading politicians
of other parties, of your delegations. For whom it is established: Russia has
sabotaged its own pipelines. – When you advance such assertions, the question
really needs be asked whether you actually also have valid evidence of that.
I here and today only know that many scenarios are
conceivable, though only a few are likely. Allow me to briefly enter a couple
of facts so as to allow you yourselves to make a picture.
In August of this year, Poland’s President Andresz Duda
demanded that Nord Stream 2 should be demolished [abreissen]. Yesterday, after pictures presumed to be of escaping
gas were published on the internet, the Polish European member and former
Polish Foreign Minister Radislav Sikorski immediately commented on Twitter: “Thanks,
USA”. And the Polish President Mateusz Morawiecki was cited by the Wirtschaftswoche at the inauguration of
a Baltic Pipe compressor station in the vicinity of Stettin:
The era of the Russian mastery in regards the gas theme goes to an end – an era marked by extortion, threats and coercion.
Thus can Norwegian natural gas flow through Denmark to
Poland.
Already at the beginning of February of this year, the President
of the United States, Joe Biden, announced that should Russia attack the Ukraine, there would
no longer be a Nord Stream 2; an end will be made of it. Nord Stream 2 was
thereupon employed by Chancellor Scholz as a means of sanction. The CDU under
your chairman, Herr Merz, demanded already in March sanctions against Nord
Stream 1. The FDP delegation was quite eager for a resolution wanting to demolish
Nord Stream 2.
So much for how the support of the Mittelstand and the economy appears! Yesterday, that must have really
been for you a swollen heart, ladies and gentlemen!
According to current media reports, the CIA already in the
summer of this year warned the Federal government it could come to attacks on
pipelines and underwater cables. If this had been so, the question needs be permitted:
Why did they not inform the Federal government or the parliamentary representatives
or, for example, the Defense Committee? Why does the chairman of the Defense Committee
now indeed speak of a guilty Russia? Again, the questions need be asked: Have
you more knowledge and why not present it to the parliament?
Why are all representatives of the Federal government, like
the Chancellor, Economy Minister, Foreign Minister, Defense Minister, currently
silent on this situation? Can the security of Germany and Europe – many citizens
and businessmen ask themselves this – still be guaranteed, or do military
confrontations in additional parts of the continent now follow your economic
war, Herr Habeck?
Michael Kruse (FDP): Yet that is not our economic war! What are you saying? Putin began the economic war!
Yet your duty as Federal government is to defend the critical
infrastructure. That is the duty of the Federal government. We therefore demand
a rapid and complete clarification without prejudice [Vorverteiling] and we demand the immediate repair, the rapid as
possible reactivation [Instandsetzung]
of the Nord Stream pipelines. Here, it is about our country and our citizens.
Michael
Kruse (FDP): Why? Already for weeks, no more gas comes through!
Dieter Janecek (Greens): Vladimir Putin’s megaphone here in the German Bundestag!
As all of you know and see, the problems before us become
ever more complex: The galloping inflation, the instability of our currency,
the lack of sovereignty in the energy supply. We now see exactly all these
problems which all of you in this house have constructed: The difficulties of securing the subsistence of many citizens, the
non-diminishing migration streams which are still to come, and now also attacks
on infrastructure without which we actually cannot exist. We require an
affordable, feasible energy supply capable of the base load – and with Russian
gas.
That is exactly what our economy and prosperity are founded
on. Uninterrupted and persistent, you, valued Federal government, bring this
motor to a standstill. You explain that the delivery of heavy weapons to war
zones would end the conflict, and thereby make yourselves culpable for a new
proxy war of the U.S.A. –
Vice-president Wolfgang Kubicki: Herr colleague, come to a conclusion, please.
on our doorstep and on the backs of the Ukrainian, the Russian
and apparently soon on that of the German peoples.
Michael
Kruse (FDP): “Proxy war of the USA”? Russia began the war!
Therefore: Clarify completely this attack on the gas
pipelines 1 and 2.
Vice-president Wolfgang Kubicki: Herr colleague, please.
End the economic sanctions!
Vice-president
Wolfgang Kubicki: Herr colleague, please come to a conclusion.
End the economic war and make peace on the continent of
Europe.
Many thanks.
[trans: tem]
