Lanz talks about the gas dispute with Putin - and rumbles on a certain statement

Created: 05/06/2022, 05:40

Norbert Röttgen (CDU) and Klaus Müller, President of the Federal Network Agency, as guests on "Markus Lanz" (ZDF).

© Cornelia Lehmann/ZDF

Germany is looking for alternatives to Russian gas.

Moderator Markus Lanz is indignant at one point in his ZDF talk round.

Hamburg – What if Russia turned off the gas for the Federal Republic?

Talkmaster Markus Lanz asks this question at the beginning of his show.

The moderator invited none other than Klaus Müller, President of the Federal Network Agency, to answer them.

His authority would be responsible in an emergency.

However, before he can go into the hypothesis, the host Lanz invites the politician Norbert Röttgen (CDU) to comment on the trip of his party leader Friedrich Merz to Ukraine.

Finally, there is the question of whether Merz actually wants to express solidarity with Ukraine or whether it is a dig at Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) because he has not visited Kyiv since the beginning of the war.

Ukraine conflict: Röttgen (CDU) demands more action from Chancellor Scholz on "Lanz".

Röttgen replies succinctly that Merz accepted the invitation from Ukrainian parliamentarians.

Scholz, on the other hand, does not accept Kiev's invitation from Frank-Walter Steinmeier as a reason for his absence.

The consequence of the process should not be that no German parliamentarian should accept any more invitations from Kyiv.

Röttgen believes and supports the fact that Scholz is in contact with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj anyway, but accuses the Chancellor of a “lack of initiative”.

Poland and the Baltic States had warned Germany about Russian President Vladimir Putin and called for leadership, but the answer was "technocracy and waiting."

Röttgen finds: “Not traveling fits into this overall picture.”

Talkmaster Lanz is interested in how the Greens member Klaus Müller stands on the issue of arms deliveries, after all he belongs to a party with a pacifist tradition.

Müller replies that this tradition changed at the latest in the 1998 Kosovo war.

At that time, the first red-green federal government under Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer (Greens) recognized the use of the military in certain situations "not just as the lesser evil, but as necessary".

In the case of the Ukraine war, the situation is clear: "I see the atrocities that are taking place in Ukraine.

It is undisputed who the aggressor is.

It is undisputed that there is an obligation under international law to help.”

"Markus Lanz" - these were his guests on May 4th:

• Norbert Röttgen (CDU) 

  – politician

• Klaus Müller 

  – President of the Federal Network Agency

Then the group of three addressed the initial question: Should Putin turn off the gas in Germany, Müller's authority would be responsible.

"The authorities are prepared, but they are not yet well prepared," the head of the Federal Network Agency assesses the situation.

This is mainly due to the short time since the agency has had to deal with a gas shortage.

"In essence, we have been preparing for this for nine weeks," says Müller.

Talkmaster Lanz is interested in the concrete steps that have been taken since then, Müller explains: Crisis teams and an emergency center for communication have been set up;

necessary data would now be collected;

and Germany's gas storage tanks filled as well as possible: "As of today: 36 percent."

"Lanz" talk with Röttgen on the energy crisis in Germany: "One deliberately looked the other way"

However, Müller can only indirectly answer why Germany's largest gas storage facility in Rehden is only 0.5 percent full.

The network agency is currently his trustee, because until a few weeks ago the storage facility belonged to Gazprom.

"Someone made a conscious decision months ago," is all that Müller can understand in his current position, because at the time the war began in Ukraine he was still managing director of the Federal Association of Consumer Centers.

Talkmaster Lanz wonders how nobody in Berlin could have noticed that Germany's largest gas storage facility is not filling up.

Röttgen suspects that Russia's gas storage policy was intended to put pressure on Germany not to intervene in troop movements along the Ukrainian border.

Röttgen believes that it must have been decided to look the other way in order not to have to deal with the necessary consequences: "That is the policy that was pursued: 'We decide: We don't look.

We know it, but we refuse to acknowledge it.'”

Russia-Gas: Netzagentur boss at "Lanz" - "Have to understand the interdependencies of the industry"

Klaus Müller and his Federal Network Agency now have to spoon up this policy.

He doesn't want to philosophize with moderator Lanz about the fact that Germany's largest gas storage facility was owned by Gazprom: "I think Mr. Röttgen just said everything about that.

My gaze is now forward.

I don't have any time to look back at the moment.” It is more important for Müller to explain the enormous complexity of the gas industry.

The contracts with Gazprom are not signed by the German government, but by individual companies.

Food and medicines are indispensable in a crisis, but other supply chains such as packaging materials are tied to them.

The glass industry brings into play the fact that clinical processing of the packaging must be guaranteed for medical products, and many other entanglements have to be considered.

In order to get as large a volume as possible, the Federal Network Agency analyzes the consumption of the 2,500 largest gas consumers in Germany: "We have to understand these interdependencies as well as possible, so that if there is a gas emergency, we can decide: Where do we put it from where do we reduce?

Netzagentur boss Müller on "Markus Lanz": "We take the gas away from others on the world market"

If Germany were able to connect two floating liquid gas terminals to the German system in 2022, that would be a real help in becoming independent of Russian gas, Müller continues.

"Because it's a matter of quantity.

Of course we take them away from someone else on the world market.

That's also part of the truth," he explains.

Moderator Lanz pricks up his ears and wants to know who Germany is taking gas away from.

Müller unembellishedly summarizes why gas tankers already booked by Asian countries are changing course in favor of Germany and the European Union: "Germany pays more than other countries."

Talkmaster Lanz then rumbled: “Germany first, I would say.

It's a really tough, Darwinian process.” Müller replies seriously that it's a “terrible moral dilemma” in more ways than one.

Even the gas that is still being purchased from Russia is helping to ensure security of supply in Germany with a view to the winter.

Because should Putin really turn off the gas tap, a hard winter would be imminent, Müller outlines: "In extreme cases, I have a scenario in mind if everything goes wrong, that I not only intervene in industry, but that other measures would also be taken in an emergency .”

"Markus Lanz" - The conclusion of the program from May 4th, 2022

"Markus Lanz" is a 45-minute edition on Wednesday evening after the Champions League on ZDF.

The politician Norbert Röttgen (CDU) expresses his view of the war in Ukraine.

Last but not least, this includes the possibility that Russia's President Vladimir Putin will turn off Germany's gas: Klaus Müller, head of the Federal Network Agency, explains how his agency has been preparing for a gas emergency scenario since the beginning of the war.

Because even gas storage tanks full to the brim would be enough for about two and a half months in an average winter in the event of a Russian gas stop, he appeals to save gas wherever possible: "That's not bad, but it's not really good.

Therefore the urgency to save, save, save."