Berlin’s Ruling Class Would Rather Put Putin First Than Abandon Net Zero

The German problem is back with a vengeance. Only this time the problem is not Hitler’s monstrous war machine, but the Pied Piper of net zero, leading Europe on its primrose path. [emphasis, links added]

With the Continent seemingly suffering a nervous breakdown over Trump, Putin, and Ukraine, Eurocrats gathered in Paris looking to Berlin for guidance.

But where the German elite leads, is it wise to follow?

Next Sunday 60 million German voters are poised to kick out Olaf Scholz, the hapless, indecisive Social Democrat, and replace him with Friedrich Merz, a fiscally conservative Christian Democrat with more hair and, we must hope, a better grasp of Realpolitik.

So Berlin will be under new management. In practice, though, how much difference will it make? The answer, I fear, is: not nearly enough.

For a quarter of a century, successive German governments bet their country’s shirt on cheap Russian gas, while running down their armed forces to the point where soldiers had to use broomsticks instead of rifles.

Gerhard Schröder, the Chancellor who gave Putin a stranglehold over German industry, later became his stooge, hired by Gazprom to promote the NordStream gas pipeline project.

His successor, Angela Merkel, was less venal but succumbed to the same grand illusion about Russia.

The German corporate and political elite’s faith in Putin was such that, even after he invaded Georgia, annexed Crimea, and irredentism in Ukraine, they turned a blind eye to the evidence that the Russian empire was striking back and aiming to reverse its defeat in the Cold War.

Rather than wean themselves off dependency on Moscow, German leaders blithely continued to shut down their nuclear industry, committing their population to an overambitious date for net zero.

The single biggest reason why Europe failed to stand up to Putin’s aggression during the last 15 years was the pathological German fear of poking the Russian bear.

Then came the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which put a stop to the post-pandemic recovery.

After a period of panic, the German business and political establishments have overcome their addiction to cheap Russian energy. Now, however, with a third year of recession in prospect, voters are in revolt.

Until it fell apart last year, the Left-wing “traffic light” government that succeeded Merkel’s centrist grand coalition had a lamentable record of foot-dragging on Ukraine, immigration, taxation, and just about everything else.

Chancellor Scholz must bear much of the blame.

After replacing an incompetent defense minister with the energetic Boris Pistorius, he refused to act on the new man’s advice to give Ukraine the kit they needed and put German industry on a war footing.

If Merz is wise, he won’t drop Pistorius the pilot, but keep the defense minister in office, tasked with turning Germany into the new arsenal of democracy.

But if Merz prioritizes his manifesto promises of tax cuts over rearmament, the German problem will persist in a new form.

Key members of the Trump administration, such as JD Vance and Elon Musk, would like to see the Alternative for Germany (AfD) installed in office alongside or instead of Merz.

But these German “nationalists” are Putin’s poodles – as their manifesto unequivocally declares – who want to return to dependency on Russian gas and lift sanctions unconditionally, while throwing Ukraine to the wolves.

The one policy that is increasingly irrelevant, but which no government in Berlin dares jettison, is the green agenda.

h/t Brandon R.

Top image showing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz via Bloomberg Television/YouTube screencap

Read rest at Telegraph