Robert Habeck, Germany's economic and energy minister, is warning that his country might want to take it easy with all the Russia bashing and associated sanctions if it wants to remain prosperous.
Germany's planned boycott of Russian oil and gas, for instance, will only hurt Germans by ushering in mass unemployment and poverty.
"If we flip a switch immediately, there will be supply shortages, even supply stops in Germany," Habeck told public broadcaster ARD in a recent interview.
Europe's second largest economy, Germany is "intensely" searching for ways to diversify its energy supplies in the medium term. However, anything too abrupt will decimate the country.
A member of Germany's Green Party, Habeck warned of "mass unemployment, poverty, people who can't heat their homes, people who run out of petrol," and more if Germany stops importing Russian oil and gas. Russia has halted ammonium nitrate fertilizer exports for at least the next month.
As reported by the Guardian (U.K.), Germany is one of the most dependent European countries on Russian energy. About 55 percent of its natural gas, 52 percent of its coal and 34 percent of its mineral oil come straight from the Kremlin.
Even so, German authorities are planning to give up all Russian coal by summer and phase out all Russian oil by the end of the year. This will almost certainly destroy Germany and its robust economy, not to mention its citizens.
"With coal, oil and even gas, we are step by step in the process of making ourselves independent," Habeck said. "But we can't do it in an instant. That's bitter, and it's not a nice thing morally to confess to, but we can't do it yet."
Biden bans imports of Russian oil, setting US up for similar economic failure
The United States currently imports about eight percent of its crude oil from Russia, or at least it did in 2021. The Biden regime recently announced a full ban on Russian oil amid already skyrocketing gas prices.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, meanwhile, continues to send lethal weapons to Ukraine to fight against Russia. He also supports cutting off Russia from the Swift payment system, as well as freezing the completed but not-yet-functional Nord Stream 2 pipeline underneath the Baltic Sea.
Unlike the U.S., though, Scholz does not, because he cannot, ban all Russian energy from flowing into Germany because the country would collapse in an instant.
"Currently there is no other way to secure Europe's supply with energy to generate heat, for mobility, for power supply and for industry," Scholz stated.
The estimates as to how a halt in Russian gas deliveries to Germany would affect that country's economy vary. Some believe it would shrink Germany's gross domestic product (GDP) by as little as 0.1 percent while others say it could be in the 5.2 percent range.
Germany's left-wing government thinks that all of this is just fine. Former Chancellor Angela Merkel, for instance, said in addition to not opening the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Germany should also shut down the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, plunging the country back into the dark ages.
Hilariously, some left-wing politicians also believe that Germany can fill the void of Russian energy by building more wind turbines and solar farms. One current project in Germany involves clear-cutting a 1,000-year-old forest to build more wind turbines.
"Simplifying the process whereby new wind and solar farms are to be authorized was one of the promises of the 'traffic light' government's coalition deal, but construction alone will take time," warned the Guardian.
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