As Germany plunges deeper into recession and the rubble of its once-mighty industrial base piles up, Angela Merkel has reappeared to remind everyone how the script was written.

In a rare interview with Der Spiegel, the former chancellor defended her decision to secure cheap Russian gas for Germany’s economy, while taking a jab at Ukraine and Poland for their hypocrisy.

Merkel laid it out plainly: Poland and Ukraine were happy to profit from transit fees as Russian gas flowed through their territories. They had no moral objections when the money was rolling in. But once Nord Stream bypassed their middleman racket, the outcry became deafening. Merkel rightly pointed out the absurdity of framing Germany’s reliance on Russian gas as some great geopolitical sin, given that other countries continue to buy from Moscow even today. The EU, in fact, still receives approximately 5% of its gas imports via Ukraine’s transit network, a figure that will evaporate when the agreement expires on December 31.

And the timing couldn’t be more damning. Germany’s economy has been in freefall since 2023, with GDP contracting by 0.3% this year and projected to shrink by another 0.1% in 2024, according to the European Commission. Corporate bankruptcies have surged, energy costs remain sky-high, and industry is fleeing the country in droves. Merkel’s warning about the consequences of high energy prices for Germany has come true, but it’s her successors (Olaf Scholz) who have failed to navigate the fallout.

The gas pipelines were more than just energy infrastructure; they were lifelines for Germany’s industrial might and symbols of a Europe that could, in theory, stand on its own two feet. By 2021, Nord Stream alone supplied half of Germany’s annual gas demand and accounted for 16% of the EU’s total natural gas needs. Its destruction in 2022 wasn’t just an attack on infrastructure but an act of economic warfare, locking Germany into dependency on overpriced U.S. LNG and ensuring its submission to DC’s dictates. And where was Berlin during this act of sabotage? Silent, complicit, neutered.

Merkel’s remarks also expose the lie of the Minsk agreements. By her own admission, these deals weren’t about peace, they were about buying time for Ukraine to arm itself against Russia. The hypocrisy of lecturing Germany about energy independence while orchestrating forever war on its doorstep is staggering.

As the December deadline looms for Ukraine’s gas transit agreement with Russia, Europe faces yet another crisis of its own making. The EU still receives 5% of its gas imports through Ukraine, but when that tap runs dry, the fallout will be yet another chapter in the continent’s economic suicide pact.

Germany’s upcoming election is the last chance for its people to wake up. Merkel’s confessions are a warning: the system is rigged, and Berlin’s strings are being pulled from across the Atlantic. The theater of democracy won’t save Germany from its current path. If Germans don’t reject the sham and demand a realignment with Russia, BRICS, and the Global Majority, then their fate as a hollowed-out vassal state will be sealed.

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Sources: Media - G. Nolan - DiplNet - Officials