Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Prime Minister Schwesig is coming under increasing pressure because of her contacts with Russia. SPD leader Klingbeil is now protecting his party colleague.
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil has defended the Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Manuela Schwesig, against criticism of her years of commitment to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
Among other things, the SPD politician is accused of having set up a climate protection foundation that was largely financed with money from Russian gas deals. “Manuela Schwesig himself publicly stated that from today’s perspective, the founding of the foundation was a mistake,” said Klingbeil of the German Press Agency. “She acted as Prime Minister on the basis of a decision that was made across parties in the state parliament in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.”
Role of the state foundation in focus
The state foundation, which was founded in early 2021, was criticized from the start because it included an economic part in addition to the area for climate protection oriented towards the common good. This should help the Russian state-owned company Gazprom and its Western European investment partners to complete the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline through the Baltic Sea, bypassing US sanctions. The line was completed in autumn 2021, but did not receive an operating license due to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.
“There was a consensus over the last 20 years, a consensus in our society, that we want cheap gas and oil from Russia and that we want to build the infrastructure for it,” said Klingbeil about Nord Stream 2. “Everyone did that for years under Chancellor Merkel parties supported. Today, as a politician, we must ask ourselves self-critically what mistakes we have made in dealing with Russia and then draw the right lessons for the future from them. That is our job as a generation of politicians that now bears responsibility.”
U-turn by Schwesig
Immediately after the outbreak of the Ukraine war, Schwesig revised her long-term pro-Russian course and described the support for Nord Stream 2 and the founding of the foundation as a mistake. But because of the state government’s contacts with the Gazprom subsidiary Nord Stream 2 AG, which have since become known, it has been heavily criticized for weeks.
The CDU chairman Friedrich Merz told the “Bild am Sonntag” that the “red swamp on the coast” had to be dried out. “If the reports are correct that Russian companies had more or less unhindered access to the state chancellery and with their help the state was also deprived of taxes, then Ms. Schwesig will not be able to hold on.” Apparently, “this nationwide SPD-Russia network exerted massive influence, with the former Chancellor Schröder playing a key role, up to and including an extremely questionable foundation structure.”
Source: Stern
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