Open Nord Stream 2!

Open Nord Stream 2!

by Oskar Lafontaine*

I can no longer listen to the whining of Steinmeier, Scholz and others about the social upheavals that will occur when the price of gas triples. If you can only get energy from states like the U.S., Saudi Arabia or Qatar and Russia, which are accused of waging wars in violation of international law, then you should give preference to the supplier that has the best and cheapest goods. And that is Russia. It is also becoming increasingly clear that the German economy is closely intertwined with Russia for many other necessary raw materials and spare parts as well.

It cannot be repeated often enough: if you cut ties with a country because of human rights violations, then you can’t trade with the U.S., which is responsible for most of the human rights violations in the world.

It was really embarrassing to watch how Biden, at the press conference with Scholz in Washington, made it abundantly clear to the latter who determines whether the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline will be put into operation or not.

When will there be a German chancellor who has the courage to say to Washington, this far and no further? Where does this German addiction to submission come from, seeing how German journalists and politicians behave when dealing with Washington?

If you think of your own population, there is only one solution: open Nord Stream 2 to prevent the worst. Charles De Gaulle still knew, states do not have friends, but interests. Just as the Yanks have been trying for a 100 years to prevent German technology from merging with Russian raw materials (George Friedman), the German government should finally realise that the sanctions do not harm Russia and the USA, but primarily Germany and Europe.

The German government and the German media can no longer deny what the renowned U.S. economist Jeffrey Sachs had recently made them take to heart again: “The war in Ukraine is the culmination of a 30-year project of the American neoconservative movement (neocons). The Biden administration is made up of the same neoconservatives who championed U.S. wars in Serbia (1999), Afghanistan (2001), Iraq (2003), Syria (2011), and Libya (2011), and who provoked Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the first place.”

When you’ve made a big mistake, you have to have the courage to correct it. No federal government has the right to make millions of Germans poorer and ruin the German economy.

*  Oskar Lafontaine, born in 1943, is one of Germany's most independent and courageous politicians. From 1985 to 1998 he was Minister-President of the Saarland (SPD). From 1995 to 1999 he was SPD chairman. From September 1998 to March 1999, he worked as Federal Minister of Finance, but then resigned from the Schröder government. With Gregor Gysi, he was parliamentary group leader of the Left Party in the German Bundestag from 2005 to 2009. From 2007 to 2010 he was party leader of the Left Party with Lothar Bisky. On 17 March 2022, he announced his resignation from the Left Party because he no longer agreed with its social and peace policies.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/oskarlafontaine, 4 July 2022

(Translation “Swiss Standpoint”)