Friedrich Merz at the Election Breakfast 2016 of the VS Consulate General in Düsseldorf. Source: Wikipedia. Photo: By Mozamaniac – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0
Berlin, Germany (Weltexpress). Under the title: “Merz backs Nord Stream ban to prevent US and Russia restarting gas link“, a renowned London business newspaper reported on May 23, 2025 about a new scandal with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the center.
According to the Financial Times (FT, behind paywall), German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is making efforts with the EU because he fears that such an American-Russian consortium, led by a US company, could soon buy gas from the Russians and then formally sell it as American gas through the NS-1 pipeline to Germany and other EU countries. The “Russia-must-be-ruined” warrior Merz would then face a dilemma, because if Germany were to impose sanctions on the new US owner of NS-1, Merz would have to reckon with sensitive reactions from Washington.
At the same time, Merz would be confronted with major domestic political and internal party problems if a US-led, Russian-American Nord Stream 1 (NS-1) pipeline consortium were to resume gas supplies to Germany and other European countries in the near future. A US company is already negotiating in Moscow. Quite a few people in Germany would see the prospect of cheaper gas imports from Russia as a salvation from their worst problems and would strongly support this initiative politically, the FT estimates. In the recent past, such demands have already been voiced at a high political level, even within CDU ranks. According to the FT, Trump’s efforts to normalize relations with Russia have also reignited the debate about Nord Stream in Germany:
- A survey by Forsa revealed that 49 percent of residents in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern are in favor of the resumption of Russian gas supplies.
- In March of this year, Michael Kretschmer, CDU Minister President of the eastern German state of Saxony, said that maintaining punitive measures against Moscow is completely outdated and does not fit in at all with what the Americans are currently doing.
- The AfD is calling for the pipelines to be put back into operation, as the eurozone’s largest economy is struggling with high energy prices and stagnation.
- According to the FT, the AfD’s view is shared by a number of business leaders and politicians from Merz’s own CDU and the party of his coalition partners in the SPD.
- Dietmar Woidke, SPD Prime Minister of the eastern German state of Brandenburg, also recently called for a normalization of Germany’s trade relations with Russia following a peace agreement.
- Thomas Bareiß, CDU MP and member of the Bundestag’s new Budget Committee, made a positive comment in a post on LinkedIn about how business-minded “our American friends” under Trump are in their dealings with Russia.
But that is precisely what Friedrich Merz wants to prevent. He does not want the pipelines to be put back into operation. In fact, with his policy of refusal, he wants to maintain the excessive energy prices in Germany for the unforeseeable future and do nothing to restore the competitiveness of industry and stop economic stagnation, the migration or closure of important branches of industry due to high energy prices and the general downward trend in our country.
Ruining Russia seems more important to Chancellor Merz than saving Germany. However, in order to deflect the growing criticism throughout the country and even in his own political CDU ranks against his policy, Merz is reaching into his political bag of tricks to use the EU Commission as a “lightning rod“ to vent his anger on them. After all, if he succeeds in getting the EU to sanction NS-1 despite considerable resistance from other member states, then he could “wash his hands of it” with a clear conscience and point to the EU directive that condemns him to inaction.
Alexander Mercouris, a world-renowned geopolitical commentator in alternative media circles based in London, also took up the cause of “ Merz and NS-1 sanctions by the EU ” on May 23. He argues that Merz is obviously prepared to sacrifice the German economy on the altar of anti-Russian EU sanctions. Above all, Merz is concerned that politics in Germany could change, possibly even before the next regular federal elections in three years, which could lead to a restart of NS-1.
As Merz does not trust future German governments to continue the policies of German governments over the last 15 years – namely the destruction of German industry – he wants to use EU sanctions against NS-1 to “weatherproof” the current “Russia-must-be-ruined” policy against possible future AfD government participation. Because once NS-1 is on the EU sanctions list, a potentially major political problem for Merz would be eliminated. Conversely, according to Mercouris, this means that Friedrich Merz’s own political problems are more important than Germany’s economic health or the living conditions of the German population or the material conditions of people in Europe!
Citing an unnamed EU official, the British geo-strategist Mercouris goes on to say that another explanation for Merz’s strange behavior is circulating, namely that Merz intends to “Europeanize” the problem of the NS-1 pipeline. In this case, Berlin would not be solely exposed to pressure from the USA and Russia if the American-Russian NS-1 consortium were to come to fruition.
However, the fact remains that Friedrich Merz is lobbying the European Commission to have Germany’s own pipeline sanctioned. Mercouris said: “I have to say, I am stunned. I find it absolutely unbelievable that the German Chancellor is willing to take such measures to sabotage the future of the German economy by denying future German governments the reactivation of Nord Stream. As I said, it leaves me speechless, but this is what Germany has become, and it also shows what the European Union itself has become.
This is because Merz wants to create a situation in which future German governments have no option to decide otherwise. If, for example, the AfD receives the most votes in an early general election in one or two years’ time and a government is formed, with or without the AfD, which wants to reopen the North Stream pipelines with the support of the large majority in the Bundestag, it will not be able to do so because the EU sanctions, which Merz is currently lobbying for in Brussels, will block the way.
In other words, what Merz is currently doing is not only to stifle political challenges for Merz personally, but also to foreclose options for Germany in the future and deny Germans the choice of what they can do to improve Germany’s long-term conditions. I am truly stunned! After all these years of seeing more and more of this sort of thing, maybe I should stop being surprised, but I still am.”
About two weeks ago, when Putin was discussing the 17th round of EU sanctions that make the lives of Russians more difficult, the Russian president remarked that it was much more likely that this would not make the lives of Russians more difficult, but those of people in Europe. Although the EU elites were acting completely irrationally, according to Putin, Russians must continue to assume that such extraordinarily irrational things will continue to be done because the leaders of the EU countries are downright “fools”.
Originally, the English translation on the Kremlin’s official website said that the EU elites were “idiots”. This was later toned down because the Russian word used by Putin rather describes someone with „half-knowledge”. However, the majority of readers will probably prefer the first version of the translation.
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