Should Germany open up Nord Stream 2?

One senior politician thinks that is the best move.

Photo by Sérgio Rola on Unsplash

Background

Wolfgang Kubicki, deputy leader of the Free Democrats (FDP), has controversially called for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to be opened in order to ensure that Germany has enough gas for the winter. “We should open Nord Stream 2 now without delay,” Kubicki told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland on Friday. There is "no sensible reason” not to open the pipeline, construction on which was finished last year, he claimed.

Stopping Nord Stream 2 - a pipeline that was meant to pump Russian gas under the Baltic and which was finally built last year - was one of the first actions the German government took to punish Russia for its war against Ukraine. The pipeline had always been bitterly opposed by both the US and eastern Europe, who warned that it would make Germany too dependent on Russia.