Rainer Kraft, September 22, 2022, Energy Crisis and Insolvency

German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 20/54, pp. 5954-5955.

Right honorable President. Valued colleagues.

I do not know how you come by the idea that we are screwing around with the security. The technical security aspects are certainly not affected by our draft law.

But let us cite someone: “Every kilowatt-hour helps in this situation”. The Green Economy Minister Robert Habeck said that.

            Stephan Brandner (AfD): How is that actually?

That is now since three months. At that time, the picture was still arranged for us that we are able to independently come out of this energy crisis in part caused by the government. Nevertheless, now at the beginning of the week, this pretense of the Economy Minister was given up as he surrendered Germany’s energy supply to the whims of wind and weather – coupled with the hope for a mild winter.

Meanwhile, sales of air heaters and kilns attained record returns. By the middle of this year, 600,000 air heaters were sold. Those are 600,000 motions of no confidence in the face of this government’s energy policy.

Even if Minister Habeck does not know what an insolvency is, more and more businesses nevertheless capitulate before the exploding energy prices. Villeroy & Bosch, Eschenbach, Hakle, Baren Board, Schlechtrimen, Dr. Schneider, Görtz, etc, etc. Traditional undertakings, which in part have withstood two world wars or two dictatorships, survive not a year under a Green Economy Minister. “Every kilowatt-hour helps in this situation”. Robert Habeck said that. Yet why does he not keep his own words?

            Bernhard Herrmann (Greens): Because he has a flu!

Isar 2, Neckarwestheim 2 and Emsland have the potential to deliver 96 million kilowatt-hours…independent of the weather and independent of the whims of Gazprom.

Seven months ago, Russia with war invaded the Ukraine. For seven months the Green Economy Minister refuses to recognize the facts. Seven months given away in which the Minister watched the rise of energy prices instead of doing what needed to be done; namely, to mobilize every kilowatt-hour of energy in Germany. Because: Every kilowatt-hour helps the businesses which then do not just go insolvent. Every kilowatt-hour helps the citizens who then need not spend their life’s savings for the next heating bill or in winter need to ask themselves: Do I want a warm dwelling or do I want to buy a meal at the supermarket?

Even if you are not here, Herr Minister, I say: Keep your word and give to the citizens and businesses what they want; namely, every possible kilowatt-hour.

The operators of Isar 2, PreussenElektra, say quite clearly: The most exigent duty now is to briskly lead the political discussion to a durable result. And who says “Every kilowatt-hour helps” can come to only a single durable result and that is the prolongation of the running time of the German nuclear power plants. The AfD’s draft law [Drucksache 20/2592] and our motion to amend [Drucksache 20/3586] make possible precisely that.

We thus confirm: The operators can and want to deliver, a majority of Germans want the prolongation of running time and, yes, there is in this house a majority of hopeful, responsible members who say no

            Vice-president Petra Pau: Herr member, please come to a conclusion.

to a big, green living lie and yes to nuclear power in Germany.    

 

[trans: tem]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tino Chrupalla, September 28, 2022, Nord Stream Gas Pipelines

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]

 

Jochen Haug, September 22, 2022, EU Citizens Initiative

German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 20/54, pp. 5928-5929.

Frau President. Ladies and gentlemen.

We today debate the law to amend the European citizens initiative by which themes can be brought to the EU Commission without the EU Commission being obligated to become substantially active therein. Understand: This toothless tiger is to give the EU a democratic coating. It is nothing more than a simulation of democracy in an undemocratic EU.

Were the EU a state which proposed its acceptance to the EU, the motion would need to be rejected – due to a lack of democratic substance.

Martin Schulz, formerly here with the SPD, then still President of the EU Parliament, said that. Herr Schulz quite correctly acknowledged: A parliament without a right of initiative, a parliament with restricted budgetary rights, based on an election law which violates the fundamental of election freedom, is in fact lacking in democratic substance.

To that pertain political discussions without a common public as a sounding board and a state power without a homogenous state people. That is rule almost without accountability. That is the dream of every technocrat. And a strengthening of the European citizens initiative would not contribute a solution to this problem. On the contrary: Every strengthening of the EU leads to a weakening of the national states. Yet only on the national level can democracy be earnestly lived. What we really need here is the introduction of direct democracy at the Federal level in Germany.

Right honorable colleagues, if you want to promote elements of direct democracy, then begin that here. Say yes to referendums on all questions concerning the national sovereignty. Say yes to referendums on amendments of the Basic Law. Say yes to the facultative referendum which gives to the citizens the opportunity to bring to a vote laws decided on by the parliament. In Switzerland especially, these instruments have been absolutely preserved. These are all points which we for years demand, which you however, out of fear of the sovereign, the German people, reject.

We of the AfD do not want that Germany be governed from Brussels and in that regard we hold that foreign citizens demands with effect, via the Commission, in Germany are fundamentally wrong. We therefore reject this draft law.

Thank you.

 

[trans: tem]