"That's completely crazy!" Food problem horrifies Lanz - economist explains worsening maneuvers by Putin
Created: 05/25/2022, 12:21 p.m
The guests at "Markus Lanz" (ZDF) on May 24th, 2022.
© ZDF Mediathek (Screenshot)
The Ukraine war remains a topic for “Markus Lanz”.
On Tuesday in the form of a looming wheat shortage, which Putin is probably tightening for his purposes.
Hamburg – Ex-Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) was actually announced for Tuesday evening at “Markus Lanz”.
But Gabriel did not appear in the ZDF Late Night Talk, the group apparently consists of only three guests spontaneously.
Lanz does not explain on the show what Gabriel's absence is all about.
Migration researcher Gerald Knaus,
Wirtschaftswoche
journalist Cordula Tutt and agricultural economist Matin Qaim are debating the actual and possible consequences of the Ukraine war without Germany's former foreign minister.
Lanz uses Gabriel in his absence as a keyword - the social democrat warns that the world community is "walking towards a new iron curtain".
Integrate Ukraine into the West?
Migration researcher Knaus on "Markus Lanz": "The historic moment is now"
Using the example of Sweden, which is moving towards NATO after 200 years of neutrality, Knaus explains that in a "new cold war" there is hardly any room for countries to position themselves in "no man's land".
Russia will "leave no stone unturned" to wear down former Soviet states such as Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine.
The decisive factor is what form of coexistence Europe wants to agree on in the future and whether it is able to support these states in stabilizing their democracies.
"This historic moment is here now," says Knaus.
Tutt believes that Germany's energy dependency on Russia is due to the naivety and ignorance of German politicians.
For too long there has been talk of private-sector decisions, for example on the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline - for which Sigmar Gabriel, as Vice Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, is partly responsible.
Only the Greens warned of the consequences of making entire supply chains dependent on Russia's gas supplies, Tutt notes.
Germany's dependence on Russian raw materials in "Markus Lanz" in the debate: "It's no coincidence"
Business journalist Tutt Lanz explains the possible motives of the chemical giant that the BASF group, for example, willfully entered into this dependency in order to obtain gas production rights in Russia.
Knaus recalls that numerous former top politicians worked for Russian state-owned companies before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It is true that there are politicians who did not "let themselves be seduced", but the fact that Russia wanted to create political dependencies follows a pattern and is no coincidence.
"Markus Lanz" - these were his guests on May 24th:
Gerald Knaus
– migration researcher
Cordula Tutt
– Journalist for
Wirtschaftswoche
Matin Qaim
– Agricultural Economist
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Host Lanz brings Qaim into the discussion with the idea that Russian President Vladimir Putin is pursuing the goal of destabilizing African countries with a lack of wheat deliveries - and thus increasing the migratory pressure on Europe.
In fact, many countries in North Africa and the Middle East are dependent on grain imports from Ukraine and Russia, says Qaim: "We're talking about 25 countries in this region that do more than 50 percent of their total wheat imports from Ukraine and Russia.
That’s many hundreds of millions of people who will ultimately be affected.”
The fact that large quantities of wheat, corn and palm oil end up either as animal feed or biofuel is not just a thorn in Qaim's side.
The agricultural economist calculates that around seven million tons of palm oil are imported to Europe every year, half of which ends up in car tanks.
Talkmaster Lanz finds: "That's grotesque!" Qaim agrees and says: "It doesn't happen because it makes so much economic sense, but because politicians enacted admixture quotas about 20 years ago."
Lanz almost loses his composure in the face of impending hunger: "Am I the only one who finds this perverse?"
"The calculation was that this would be good for the climate," explains Qaim.
However, it turned out that this calculation did not add up - at least from the point of view of the national climate budget.
After all, destroyed rainforest areas would be counted towards countries like Indonesia and not Germany.
Host Lanz can hardly believe it: "That's completely crazy!
Am I the only one who finds this perverse?” Tutt replies to the angry moderator with a sober analysis: “These are all the consequences of our way of living and doing business.”
Russia is exacerbating the problem by currently looting Ukrainian grain stores, Lanz explains about the pictures of trucks driving through Mariupol.
Qaim says: "We estimate that there are still 27 million tons of grain in the silos in Ukraine that cannot be removed." The agricultural economist goes on to explain how Putin is explaining to African countries that the West and its trade sanctions are to blame for the situation.
At the same time, after all, Russia is supplying grain and thus presenting itself as a “savior in need”.
Qaim fears: "We are running into a major problem that is now leading to grain shortages on the world market, but which will continue to dramatize in the coming weeks and months."
"Markus Lanz" - The conclusion of the show
In "Markus Lanz" the name of the former German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) was mentioned several times on Tuesday evening.
He was announced as a guest on the show that afternoon, but ultimately wasn't in the group.
Without the former SPD chairman, the migration researcher Gerald Knaus, the journalist Cordula Tutt and the agricultural economist Matin Qaim talk about the big topic of state dependencies.
From fossil raw materials and food to the climate, inflation and the global economy: Russia understands how to increase the pressure on Europe and the West - the group agrees on that.
Talkmaster Markus Lanz states soberly: "There's a lot coming together."
(Hermann Racke)
