Kubicki: Goal not realistic
FDP is bickering about the dismantling of Nord Stream 2
2022-09-02, 8:57 p.m
Nord Stream 2 is history for Germany’s gas supply. However, parts of the FDP also want to finally bury and dismantle the pipeline. Party Vice Kubicki braces himself against it. He does not find these plans realistic and believes that the pipeline will be able to be used for other purposes in ten years.
There is a dispute in the FDP about how to deal with the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which never went into operation. “As Free Democrats, we demand the dismantling of Nord Stream 2,” says a published position paper that the FDP parliamentary group passed at its closed meeting in Bremen. Group member and party deputy Wolfgang Kubicki thinks this is absurd.
Nord Stream 2 was built to transport gas from Russia to Germany. After Russia attacked Ukraine, the German government decided not to put the pipeline into operation.
“Right from the start, the Nord Stream pipelines were a geopolitical project of the Kremlin, whose aim was to isolate Ukraine,” says the FDP parliamentary group’s position paper. “That’s why the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in particular led to considerable upset and diplomatically isolated Germany.” The parliamentary group therefore calls for the dismantling “as well as the fastest possible development of a concept for legal, technical and environmental protection”.
Demand “possibly populist”
Kubicki told TV broadcaster Welt that such demands “are very popular, possibly populist, but are not realistic”. He also sees no need to dismantle the pipeline. “As long as it is not in use, it simply lies, plain and simple, at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. But at the moment I have no idea which company from Germany should actually get the line out of the Baltic Sea again, at what cost and by whom.”
“We may still be happy in 10 or 15 years that it is there because we can do exactly what we are currently agreeing with the Norwegians, namely to transport CO2 through these gas pipelines to the storage facilities in Russia,” said Kubicki .
Kubicki warns of freezing people
In mid-August, Kubicki demanded that Nord Stream 2 be put into operation. In doing so, he met with sharp opposition from his own party. FDP boss and Federal Minister of Finance Christian Lindner called the idea “wrong and absurd”.
Over the next few weeks, even more people would realize that gas via Nord Stream 2 would still be better than economic problems and freezing in winter, Kubicki now predicted on Welt TV. “It’s important that we get our storage tanks as full as possible. It’s important that we can keep our companies on the market in winter – and that the residents of our country don’t have to freeze.”