Hounded by the international media and hated in his home city for his close ties to Russia, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder insists that Germany needs Russia’s vast energy supplies to maintain its industrial power.
As Germany’s leaders distance themselves from calls to embargo Russian oil and gas imports, the New York Times published an interview on Saturday with Gerhard Schroeder, the country’s former chancellor who oversaw the construction of the first Russia-Germany Nord Stream pipeline and went on to advise multiple Russian energy companies.
Schroeder, who remains personally close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, has faced scathing criticism at home for his role in fostering Germany’s dependence on Russian gas (although his successor, Angela Merkel, refused to lessen that reliance). His favorite soccer team, Borussia Dortmund, demanded he condemn Putin, his former colleagues in the Social Democratic Party have called for his expulsion, and he relinquished his honorary citizenship of his home city of Hannover, before the city could strip him of it.
READ MORE: Germany explains why it opposes Russia gas embargo
The last former German leader to have his honorary citizenship of Hannover stripped was Adolf Hitler, the Times reported.
However, Schroeder insists that Russia and Germany need each other. “They need oil and gas to pay for their budget. And we need oil and gas to heat and to keep the economy going,” he stated.
“German industry needs the raw materials that Russia has. It’s not just oil and gas, it’s also rare earths. And these are raw materials that cannot simply be substituted,” Schroeder added.
He is not alone in that view. While Merkel defied threats of sanction from the US and pushed ahead with the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the current SPD-led government axed the almost-completed project within days of Russia’s offensive against Ukraine. With that same government pressing ahead with closing Germany’s three remaining nuclear plants, leaders in Berlin are realizing that without Russian energy, Germany’s economy could collapse.
“I don’t see at all that a gas embargo would end the war,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the German weekly Der Spiegel on Friday. “We want to avoid a dramatic economic crisis, the loss of millions of jobs and factories that would never open again. That would have serious consequences for our country, for the whole of Europe, and it would also severely affect the financing of Ukraine’s reconstruction.”