Sputnik News
Germany, an industrial giant constituting over one quarter of the European Union’s GDP, has been among the nations hit hardest by the bloc’s self-induced energy and inflation crunch, with Germans urged to bathe less, wear sweaters to stay warm, and ride bikes more to get around. Last month, a poll found that 1/6 of the country is food insecure.
Major sectors of the German economy could “permanently” collapse thanks to the gas and inflation crises pummeling the country, German Trade Union Confederation chairwoman Yasmin Fahimi has warned.
“We have a real emergency. Entire branches of industry are in danger of collapsing permanently because of the gas bottlenecks: aluminum, glass, the chemical industry,” Fahimi said in an interview with Bild.
“Such a collapse would have massive consequences for the entire economy and jobs in Germany,” the trade union leader warned.
Fahimi, who met with Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday to discuss the crisis, told Bild that a third relief package from the government was essential, particularly for the unemployed, pensioners, and students.
“It’s terrible that people have to think about which vegetables they can still afford because of their electricity and gas bills. We urgently need an energy price cap for private households,” she said.
In his meeting with Fahimi, Scholz called for “concerted action” to make it through the energy and inflation crunch. “We will only get through this crisis, as a country, when we agree together on solutions,” he said.
Berlin has already implemented two social relief packages, including the abolition of a renewable energy tax on electricity bills, a commuter allowance that can be claimed in tax returns, and a slight rise in the tax-free allowance, as well as cash payments to lower income families and the unemployed.
Germany, which purchased about 40 percent of its gas and a quarter of its oil from Russia before the escalation of the crisis in Ukraine, has been hit particularly hard among the major European economies in the wake of Brussels’ push to “phase out” the EU’s dependence on Russian energy, lacking France’s nuclear power capabilities, and Italy’s access to cheap North African sources of gas, for example.
On Monday, the German Federal Network Agency announced that the country had enough gas in its underground storage reserves to last just one to two months if supplies from Russia were to be completely cut off. Last month, Berlin activated the second of three stages of its emergency plan to reduce gas consumption, which consists of “warning,” “alert,” and “emergency” levels.
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