Lafontaine at Maischberger “It would be better to get cheap energy directly from Russia”
By Marko Schlichting November 29, 2023, 4:54 a.m. Listen to article
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An industrial nation needs cheap energy, says Oskar Lafontaine at Maischberger and advocates being supplied by Russia again. Former Federal President Gauck calls the demand “grotesque.”
Tuesday evening on ARD. Sandra Maischberger has two former politicians as guests who do not speak to each other on the show. That’s a shame, because they would probably have a lot to say to each other: the former Prime Minister of Saarland and Federal Finance Minister Oskar Lafontaine and former Federal President Joachim Gauck. Lafontaine, ex-member of the SPD and co-founder and former chairman of the Left, turned eighty years old a good two months ago. Gauck, a brief member of the GDR civil rights party New Forum and Protestant pastor, is three years older. Gauck can’t do much with the left, that’s because of his history. Lafontaine left the left a year and a half ago. Today he supports his wife Sahra Wagenknecht in founding a new party.
At the time, Lafontaine resigned from his post as finance minister under Chancellor Gerhard Schröder amid a dispute and left the SPD a few years later. He has now made peace with Schröder and considers him to be the better chancellor compared to Olaf Scholz. “For example, he recognized that an industrial nation needs cheap energy. Scholz doesn’t seem to understand that,” says Lafontaine, explaining his opinion.
No weapons to Ukraine
He criticizes the fact that Germany is still getting energy from Russia via detours. He refers to data from the Federal Statistical Office from September of this year. After that, oil shipments from India have increased twelvefold compared to 2022. According to a UN report, India sources large quantities of crude oil from Russia. Experts consider it “plausible” that Germany and other European countries buy Russian oil from India at very high prices. “It would be better to get cheap energy directly from Russia,” says Lafontaine.
Joachim Gauck sees it completely differently. It is not only a moral imperative, but also political reason, not to do business or even talk to any power that has made itself an enemy through an unprovoked attack on another country. “To overlook that and say that we could get cheap oil from such a war criminal is probably grotesque.”
To deal with the current budget crisis, Lafontaine proposes savings, particularly in the military sector. “When I see that it is said that we are doubling our donations to Ukraine, I ask myself: Can they not draw any conclusions from reality?” In almost two years, the West has achieved nothing by supplying arms to the country attacked by Russia. Many people died and Ukraine was completely destroyed. Lafontaine: “If you have taken a path that turns out to be wrong, you have to correct it.” Giving billions to Ukraine is not responsible.
“It would be right to ask Ukraine: ‘How long do you have the strength to fight for a goal that you may not achieve?'” Gauck later replied. In the war, Ukraine, which is supported by the West, is the victim and Russia is the aggressor. “If it were a desire for peace that said: ‘You’re so strong, we won’t even defend ourselves,’ then freedom would be at an end.”
Criticism of the debt brake
Lafontaine criticizes that the introduction of the debt brake was a mistake in current policy. It must either be abolished or reformed. “I don’t know of any other country that has this nonsense,” says the politician. The debt brake has proven to be an obstacle to investment. If they were abolished, that would not mean that one would automatically have to take on more debt. At the same time, Lafontaine is calling for tax cuts for the middle class, but they must be increased for the “very, very rich.”
The politicians and journalists sitting on the panel this evening agree on one thing: they do not believe in new elections, as proposed by Bavarian Prime Minister Söder. “If everyone at the table behaves rationally, this won’t happen because none of the parties currently in government can have an interest in going to elections,” RTL and NTV political director Nikolaus Blome analyzed at the beginning of the program . However, he restricts: “If someone starts to go crazy because they can’t go on and they don’t know what to do, then they get up and leave. And then there are new elections.”
“I agree with Blome,” says Lafontaine. In addition, the politician does not believe that there is much interest in new elections, not even in the Union. “There are certainly some in the CDU who say behind closed doors: If we get to it, things will be just as bad. And then they might have to say: We have to change the debt brake.”
2023-11-29 03:54:00
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