Everything is a political weapon since Trump’s re-election, says Germany’s ex-economy minister | Germany

Germany’s former economy minister said the weaponization of energy following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has given way to the “weaponization of everything” since Donald Trump returned to the White House.

Robert Habeck, the Green politician responsible for keeping the lights on during the last energy crisis, said believing gas “will never be a political weapon” led successive German governments blindly into Putin’s trap by building Nord Stream pipelines and selling to Gazprom strategic reserves that Russia had drained before the invasion.

But Donald Trump’s re-election has led to a second security shock with “dramatic, violent and far-reaching” consequences, including tariffs and the weaponization of technology, he said, according to the Guardian.

“This is the lesson I hope everyone has learned, from weaponizing energy (bad enough) to weaponizing everything,” said Habeck, vice-chancellor of the last German coalition government.

Europe is facing a looming energy crisis after the US and Israel attacked Iran in February, retaliatory attacks that led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) passes.

The price increases have led to renewed calls for clean domestic energy and complaints that Europe needs to wean itself off foreign fuels faster.

Habeck, who raced to build LNG terminals and secure alternative gas supplies when Russia invaded Ukraine, said he faced “sleepless nights” during the last energy crisis because of the prospect of telling industries to close factories if they couldn’t get gas on time.

“Gas prices in Germany may be high now,” he said. “But at the time there was a real threat that we wouldn’t have any gas.”

He dismissed criticism that focusing on relocating suppliers and building import terminals risks stranding assets while the country reduces pollution.

He also defended his decision to delay the closure of Germany’s last nuclear power plants in 2022 by just a few months, rather than allowing them to refuel and operate longer. The center-right Christian Democrats, who were in opposition at the time, criticized the economy ministry for not conducting an open-ended review of the problem. The parliamentary inquiry held last year failed to reach a conclusion.

“Personally I wouldn’t have any problems using it [the reactors] Habeck said some in the opposition were using this as a “Trojan horse” to reopen the phase-out legislation, and that changing the rules to allow refueling could increase production to a level that would “destroy the growing market for renewable energy.”

Germany generated 60% of its electricity from renewable sources last year, with coal and gas making up the rest. Habeck said he had become “sort of agnostic” about the risks of nuclear power in Germany, but he remembered the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and the radiation that blanketed Europe.

“There was no dancing in the rain, no kissing in the rain, no sleeping on the beach because there was nuclear fallout everywhere,” he said. “We basically stayed at home and at 16 I really said that this wasn’t the type of energy that should be driving my life.”

The Ukraine war has prompted EU officials to speed up the permitting process for wind turbines and solar panels, which now produce more electricity than fossil fuels; But analysts say they have been slow to reduce energy demand, reduce waste and electrify activities such as driving cars and heating homes.

At the start of the war, Germany introduced a number of short-term measures to save gas, such as lowering thermostats in public buildings to 18°C ​​– “people in my ministry were sitting at their desks in winter jackets” – and sought to restrict future consumption by phasing out gas boilers.

Known as “Habeck’s heater hammer” by an aggressive tabloid campaign, the policy turned heat pumps into objects of ridicule. Renewable energy requirements are now being watered down by the conservative coalition government.

Speaking from Copenhagen, where he works as an analyst at the Danish Institute of International Studies, Habeck said Scandinavian countries that have adopted heat pumps are laughing at Germany for its resistance to clean heating.

But he said his narrow focus on avoiding gas shortages had led him to underestimate the extent to which Germans were fed up with inflation and intrusion into their private lives. He also said he underestimated the resistance of people running the gas companies.

“I know some of them personally – they’re good people and I think when they talk to their kids they always say ‘yes, we have to change to save the planet’ and ‘global warming is a threat’ – but ultimately they have a vested interest as company owners,” he said.

The Greens were removed from the coalition government in February 2025 due to declining attention on the climate and harsh attacks from parties that blamed Habeck for Germany’s economic woes. In a possible sign of recovery, they won Sunday’s state elections in Baden-Wuerttemberg, the wealthy center of the German auto industry.

“I would say that Germany has made peace with a different heating system and electric vehicles are now really on the rise,” Habeck said. “So yes, it is too late – and not just a month or a year, but 10 years too late when we look at other countries – but because of tough decisions [it’s] “I’m basically on the right track now.”