I’ve written several times that Angela Merkel was the third German leader in a century to wreck Europe. It’s turning out that I was more right than I knew. I was mostly referring, at the time, to Merkel’s unilateral decision to throw Europe’s borders open to millions of fighting-age young men from the sinkholes of the Middle-East and Africa.
Little did I know that was just the start of her destructiveness.
Former President Trump knew: but, hoo boy, didn’t the legacy media hoot and sneer at the Bad Orange Man, when he warned us about Merkel’s climate-deranged energy policies. Policies which left Germany — and Europe — at the mercy of Vladimir Putin.
Somehow, I think those Tuetonic Titheads aren’t smirking, any more.
Germany has triggered the “alarm stage” of its emergency gas plan in response to falling Russian supplies but stopped short of allowing utilities to pass on soaring energy costs to customers in Europe’s largest economy.
The measure is the latest escalation in a stand-off between Europe and Moscow after the February 24 Russian invasion of Ukraine that has exposed the bloc’s dependence on Russian gas supplies and sparked a frantic search for alternative energy sources […]
Lower gas flows sparked warnings this week that Germany could fall into recession if Russian supplies halted all together.
ABC Australia
You’ll never guess what happened next!
Russia’s state-owned gas supplier Gazprom is tightening its gas squeeze on Europe, cutting supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to just 20 per cent of capacity due to alleged maintenance issues.
Gazprom said flows would fall to 33 million cubic metres per day from Wednesday — a halving of the current, already reduced level — because it needed to halt the operation after instructions from an industry watchdog […]
Politicians in Europe have said Russia could cut off gas flows this winter, which would thrust Germany into recession and lead to soaring prices for consumers already grappling with higher prices for food and energy.
ABC Australia
And right on cue…
A worrying trend is unfolding among German manufacturers as more and more companies give up their production or have already restricted their operations due to the sharp increase in energy prices, a new survey has shown.
The poll of 3,500 companies by the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) for the Handelsblatt newspaper revealed that 16 percent of industrial companies want to reduce their production.
RMX News
Manufacturing is one of the major sectors of the German economy. If manufacturing stalls, Germany is stuffed. Germany is the single biggest contributor to the EU’s GDP, accounting for over 25%.
In Berlin, politicians and regulators are preparing for an ice-cold Christmas, drawing up lists for rationing priorities and emergency plans to stop the population freezing.
Entertainment and frivolities will be the first things to go, while newspapers and medical production will be prioritised alongside households and hospitals. Mothballed coal power plants are being prepared for reactivation. Some local governments are planning to turn public buildings into ‘warming halls’ for those unable to heat their homes or turn off traffic lights, setting up ‘industrial-scale dormitories’.
The most heated debate is whether the government should prioritise residential consumption over the economy. While current plans aim to sacrifice economic output in favour of keeping homes warm, industry groups are pushing back, claiming a shutdown would be the ‘worst crisis since the second world war’. The charity Caritas has also come out against the plans, warning that gas is needed ‘to produce basic foodstuffs like milk and essential medicines’, and ‘blood reserves for the gravely injured’. One set of estimates reckoned a full shutdown would cost Germany 2 per cent of GDP and 400,000 jobs; another put the cost closer to 12 per cent of output.
Spectator Australia
At the same time, Britain is debating extraordinary measures such as banning Sunday motoring and reducing speed limits across the board.
The once-smug Germans are now admitting that they are staring down the barrel of the worst crisis since WWII (who was responsible for that one, too?).
All because of the green delusions of climate cultist, Mutti Merkel.
Well, I guess shutting down your entire industrial sector is one way to get to “net zero” emissions.
Enjoy your net zero, Europe.