Get 40% Off
🤯 This Tech Portfolio is up 29% YTD! Join Now to Get April’s Top PicksGet The Picks – Just 99 USD

Candidates to succeed Merkel clash on Nord Stream 2 pipeline

Published 05/20/2021, 11:50 AM
Updated 05/20/2021, 12:11 PM
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A road sign directs traffic towards the Nord Stream 2 gas line landfall facility entrance in Lubmin, Germany, September 10, 2020.   REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A road sign directs traffic towards the Nord Stream 2 gas line landfall facility entrance in Lubmin, Germany, September 10, 2020. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

By Paul Carrel

BERLIN (Reuters) - The conservative and Greens candidates to succeed German Chancellor Angela Merkel after September's federal election clashed on Thursday on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia, and on whether Germany should host U.S nuclear weapons.

In their first debate, focused on foreign and security policy, Armin Laschet, from Merkel's conservative alliance, welcomed a decision by the U.S. administration this week to waive sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG and its chief executive.

Gazprom (MCX:GAZP) and its Western partners are racing to finish the pipeline to send natural gas under the Baltic Sea. The project, now about 95% complete, would bypass Ukraine, depriving it of lucrative transit fees and potentially undermining its struggle with Russia.

"I stand by the project and consider it important," Laschet said in the debate hosted by broadcaster WDR.

"This decision on how we organize our energy supply we make ourselves, by the way, and so it is a good signal that the policy of President Trump has ended," he said, referring to the U.S. waiver on sanctions.

"Germany always has Ukraine's security in mind," he added.

But Annalena Baerbock, the environmentalist Greens' candidate, said the pipeline issue was "about war and peace", arguing that Nord Stream 2 risks undermining Ukraine's security. In recent months, Russia, in what it called a defensive exercise, massed troops on its western border with Ukraine and in Crimea.

Baerbock made the running for much of the debate, but Laschet and Olaf Scholz, the Social Democrats' (SPD) chancellor candidate, called her out when she said "this German government is completely against all other Europeans with this (pipeline) project."

In the most heated exchange in the hour-long debate, Laschet retorted: "That's not true Ms. Baerbock, and you know it."

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A road sign directs traffic towards the Nord Stream 2 gas line landfall facility entrance in Lubmin, Germany, September 10, 2020.   REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

The project pits Germany, the EU's biggest economy, against central and eastern European nations, some of them EU members, who say it would increase the bloc's dependence on Russian gas.

Baerbock's differences with Laschet and Scholz are significant because opinion polls show a coalition is as good as certain to follow after the election, with the Greens likely to join forces with either Laschet's conservative camp or Scholz's SPD.

Latest comments

Biden is tough against Russia! Shutting down USA pipelines but allowing Russian pipelines! Lol LOL LOL
Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.