‘Get out of the comfort zone of complacency’ – Habeck defends record as German MPs criticise govt disunity, impact of sanctions

« Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck defended his government’s record amid mounting criticism in the German Parliament, during the ongoing budget debate in the Bundestag on Thursday.
« Get out of the comfort zone of complacency – that has to be the motto of our time. If we want to defend our prosperity, if we want to renew our prosperity, then it means that we have to act actively and not lecture ourselves on how we could have acted in the past, » he said.
He blamed ‘many of the problems we have at the moment’ on the ‘turbulence’ of the Ukraine conflict.
« Even if Putin’s trolls don’t want to admit it – it was Putin’s intention to destabilise the economic situation in Europe right from the start, so it’s good that we bothered him, we bothered him together, » he claimed.
Habeck admitted that the country had entered the current situation with ‘self-satisfaction’ but also criticised the ‘defeatist badmouthing’.
« We have, and I just deduced, we have problems, problems that are fundamentally related to the geopolitical situation and home problems, » he said. « But that doesn’t mean everything is bad. We are a strong location, we are a highly interesting location for foreign investors. »
However, former Health Minister under Angela Merkel, Jens Spahn, said the current administration ‘does not function in a crisis’.
« The [proposed] Germany Pact is actually a vote of no confidence by the chancellor against his own coalition, » he claimed, commenting on Olaf Scholz’s call for the country to unite.
« 80 percent of Germans no longer trust their government, » he continued. « This shattered trust is an economic stimulus programme for the populists. »
Meanwhile, Klaus Ernst from The Left Party compared the economy unfavourably with that of Russia and criticised the impact of Western sanctions.
« When you look at how the economy is developing in Russia, you realise that they are growing and we, what do we have? We have negative growth, we are rushing into a recession here, » he said.
« If we keep doing this, if you keep doing this, you’re really helping to ruin this country one step further. So I hope they come to a reasonable assessment there; even Mrs [Foreign Minister Annalena] Baerbock has meanwhile found out – who is surprised? – that doesn’t really work with the sanctions, » he said.
On Wednesday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for a collaborative effort to modernise the country, and proposed the ‘Germany Pact’ aimed at tackling high inflation, the energy crisis, global warming and the consequences of the Ukraine conflict. »



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