Latest news with #SahraWagenknecht
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
EU has purchased €33 billion worth of Russian liquefied natural gas since February 2022
The European Union has imported Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) worth €32.7 billion since the start of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Source: German news magazine Stern, as reported by European Pravda Details: Stern noted that this figure was provided by the German Federal Statistical Office in response to a request from the pro-Russian Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW). According to the data received, the cost of LNG imports from Russia to the EU between February 2022 and March 2025 amounts to almost €33 billion. During the same period, the European Union imported LNG from the United States worth €95.1 billion. In Stern magazine, BSW leader Sahra Wagenknecht criticised the costly double standards of the sanctions policy: "€33 billion for Russian LNG since the start of the war, but Russian pipeline gas is deemed taboo in Germany". BSW has long advocated restarting the Nord Stream gas pipeline. Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Security and Defence, however, is calling for a stop to imports of Russian LNG. She said: "It is completely unacceptable that the European Union continues to import liquefied natural gas from Russia worth billions of euros three years after the start of Putin's brutal war of aggression". Background: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz promised to do everything possible to weaken Russia's military machine and prevent the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from becoming operational. The European Union is reportedly close to a decision to include Russian gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 in a new draft of sanctions against Russia, putting an end to rumours about their possible resumption. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
German Greens slam Israel's action in Gaza as new offensive unfolds
Germany's Green Party on Saturday strongly criticized Israel's military action in the Gaza Strip, after the country launched a major new offensive in the sealed-off territory overnight. The ongoing blockade of aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip and the renewed expansion of hostilities are "unacceptable," Green Party leader Franziska Brantner said. One in five people in Gaza is at risk of starvation, she added, referring to the latest IPC assessment on food security, which is supported by several UN organizations and aid groups. Brantner said the German government must "make clear its position on compliance with international humanitarian law." Populist politician Sahra Wagenknecht meanwhile demanded an immediate halt to Germany's arms deliveries to Israel, describing its actions in the Gaza Strip as "a campaign of destruction and a gigantic war crime." Wagenknecht, who leads the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, said the German government must immediately end its "policy of solidarity" with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Observers fear Israel's new offensive will lead to many more deaths in the coastal strip, where people have been living in catastrophic conditions for many months. The Israeli military has not allowed aid deliveries into Gaza for more than two months, accusing the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas of reselling aid supplies to the increasingly destitute population. Israel recently announced that it would allow aid deliveries to resume, but not through the existing channels. Brantner demanded "unhindered access to humanitarian aid" as a matter of urgency. She accused German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul of supporting the reorganization of aid "instead of letting the established humanitarian actors do their work." During a recent trip to Israel, Wadephul expressed understanding for the Israeli argument that aid deliveries should not serve Hamas and pledged German support.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Populist BSW contests German election result after missing 5% hurdle
Germany's populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) is contesting the results of February's parliamentary election, the party confirmed on Wednesday. The anti-immigrant BSW won 4.981% of the vote in the election, falling just short of the 5% required to secure seats in the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament. If the party's challenge is successful, the move would have massive implications for German politics, as the incoming coalition - made up of Friedrich Merz's Christian Democrats (CDU), the Bavaria-only Christian Social Union (CSU) and the centre-left Social Democratic Party - would no longer have a majority in the Bundestag. The new administration is set to take office in early May after the parties approve their coalition agreement, but the BSW's challenge could upend their plans. "The BSW demands - nothing more and nothing less - that every vote that was submitted for the BSW should count for the BSW. That is definitely not the case until now," party founder Sahra Wagenknecht told the Rheinische Post newspaper. The party's co-leader Amira Mohamed Ali said that the party does not believe that it has been the victim of manipulation, but rather that "mistakes were made." Just one year after emerging as a splinter group from The Left party, the BSW fell 9,529 votes short of reaching the 5% hurdle in February's election. In its challenge, it claims that up to 32,000 votes for the party were either not counted, or were incorrectly assigned.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Wagenknecht: Russians must be invited to German WWII commemorations
Russian representatives should be allowed to take part in commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, German politician Sahra Wagenknecht told dpa on Wednesday. Wagenknecht - who founded the populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) last year - said excluding Russian diplomats from memorial services would be to forget history. "Anyone who no longer knows or wants to know that the Soviet army bore the brunt of the war against Nazi Germany and that 27 million people from the Soviet Union, the majority of them Russians, fell victim to the extermination campaign of the German Wehrmacht, is out of place in German politics," she told dpa. Wagenknecht's upstart anti-immigrant party, which received just short of 5% of the vote in February's parliamentary election, has been seen as pro-Russia for its open questioning of German support for Ukraine. Her comments came after the German Foreign Office recommended that officials from Russia and Belarus should not be invited to commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the war's end in May. The decision was justified by fears that Russia could "exploit the commemorative events and improperly link them" to the war in Ukraine. Wagenknecht said the move "damages Germany's international reputation" and warned of a "new German zeitgeist that seeks to mentally prepare us for the next war with Russia." East Germans in particular have not forgotten that "without a Soviet President [Mikhail] Gorbachev, German reunification would never have happened," she added. The Russian embassy has insisted on participating in events marking the anniversary. However, the Bundestag - Germany's lower house of parliament - said that the Russian and Belarusian ambassadors would not be invited to its commemorative ceremony on May 8.
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Populist party leader calls for German coronavirus pandemic inquiry
German populist politician Sahra Wagenknecht has repeated her call for an official inquiry into the country's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. On Saturday's fifth anniversary of the first coronavirus lockdown, the leader of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) said the fact that there had been no review of the crisis at a federal level was a serious mistake. She also said that it was wrong that there had been no compensation for the victims and no amnesty for penalties and fines imposed at the time. "The lockdowns had devastating consequences for our country that can still be felt today," she said, and complained of "political pressure on dissenters" and the exclusion of the unvaccinated from society. "The coronavirus policy is the most authoritarian chapter in the history of the federal republic so far," she claimed. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has also called on the future German government and the lower house of parliament, or Bundestag, to address the coronavirus pandemic. "I consider it essential that transparency be established so that we can win back as many people as possible who, during the pandemic, doubted democracy and its institutions," Steinmeier said on Friday.
