7 ms·
Worth adding that in EU this is largely German public opinion. And somehow the tail wags the dog.
by mszyndel 5y ago
Worth adding that in EU this is largely German public opinion. And somehow the tail wags the dog.
- lrem 5y agoIs it so? Constituting a quarter of the gdp, Germany doesn't seem to qualify as "the tail".
- buran77 5y agoIs public opinion weight a matter of GDP? Should it?
- moralestapia 5y agoGermany is also the most populated country in the EU.
- petre 5y agoThat's 26% of EU population. Still less than 50%.
- lrem 5y agoI'm afraid it usually is - just think of ways to sway it. Now, I would love to agree it shouldn't be, but there is no concrete system I can think of that could decouple it well. Ownership of media by the state oftentimes makes it a propaganda arm of whichever party is ruling. Private ownership, even in case of heavy subsidies, implies ownership by capital...
- q1w2 5y agoAngela Merkel was a disaster in this regard. The nation went collectively insane after Fukushima and she cowed to the public to win the next election rather than try to calm the public ignorance. Instead, Germany funded Russia's NordGas II pipeline to replace the nuclear power they turned off with gas. Insane stupidity.
- nazka 5y agoAnd continue with their coal mines and turbines too…
- LargoLasskhyfv 5y agoWhile I concur with the 'disaster', the pipeline thing seems to be more rooted in our former chancellor, a.k.a Gazprom Gerd. Revolving door, and such, you know? :-)
- joecool1029 5y agoAs stupid as this policy was, it wasn't started by Merkel. She just sped it up. The previous chancellor Schröder, now a foreign Russian energy minister, set the schedule into motion for nuclear shutdown.[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Schr%C3%B6der#Relationship_with_Gazprom_and_Rosneft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Schr%C3%B6der#Relation...
- kelsolaar 5y agoAnd they put back up many coal power plants which creates an insane amount of air pollution.
- dispat0r 5y agoThat's not true. There is an exit strategy for coal in germany and at least for now it's still going. Next year they will shutdown the remaining nuclear plants. That will be the moment of truth.
- a0-prw 5y agoNo, Germany did not fund Nordstream 2. "Anglo-Dutch group Royal Dutch Shell, Austria’s OMV, France’s Engie and Germany’s Uniper and Wintershall will each provide loans covering 10 per cent of the €9.5bn cost of the pipeline, with Gazprom providing the remaining 50 per cent." Source: Financial Times, https://archive.vn/pirwk https://archive.vn/pirwk Also, clean energy is a long way off and Europeans are still going to have to heat their houses. Personally, I'm happy that we're doing business with Russia, rather than being locked into more expensive, US gas imports.