Can Germany cope without Russian gas?
The government and economists disagree
OLAF SCHOLZ reacted on March 27th with unusually harsh words to a question by Anne Will, a popular Sunday talk-show host, about studies by economists that suggest an immediate stop of imports of Russian energy would reduce German economic growth by only a modest amount. “Their view is wrong,” said Mr Scholz, adding that it was “irresponsible” to feed numbers into mathematical models to arrive at this conclusion.
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Can Germany forgo Russian imports?”
From the April 2nd 2022 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionDiscover more
Ursula von der Leyen has a new doctrine for handling the hard right
The boss of the European Commission embarks on a second term
Marine Le Pen spooks the bond markets
She threatens to bring down the French government, but also faces a possible ban from politics
The maths of Europe’s military black hole
It needs to spend to defend, but voters may balk
Ukraine’s warriors brace for a Kremlin surge in the south
Vladimir Putin’s war machine is pushing harder and crushing Ukrainian morale
Vladimir Putin fires a new missile to amplify his nuclear threats
The attack on Ukraine is part of a new era of missile warfare
A rise in antisemitism puts Europe’s liberal values to the test
The return of Europe’s oldest scourge