Gas Follies Breed 'A New Alliance' (Robert Habeck) between Austria, Czechia, and Germany--to Create a New Model for Europe

Additional Features incl. the invocation of a 'common destiny' due to potentially months-long energy deprivation: now, when and where did I hear that phrase before…?

To me, being an expat means re-discovering the area where I was born and grew up in (Central Europe) in what these days seems like a lifetime ago. These notions were instrumental in me beginning to publish online, and if you care enough about these notions, you might wish to read the two very brief opening postings from last September (part 1 and part 2).

With these preliminaries out of the way, let’s see what happened over the past couple of days in that area.

Mr. Habeck Goes to Vienna

Referring to himself as ‘a pragmatic realist’, Germany’s Vice Chancellor and Economics Minister Robert Habeck travelled to Austria yesterday to discuss the current predicament of being mean to Russia while relying on Russian hydrocarbon energy to, well, keep the lights switched on. One may think—expect—that these politicians would actually think about this particular constellation before beginning to saw off the branch upon they (we) are sitting, but then again, while we’re at it, why not wish for the moon?

As reported (sic) extensively by Der Standard, both Austria and Germany share ‘a long, close relationship’, according to Austro-Covidian Infrastructure and Climate Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens). With apparently no context needed—perhaps lest anyone starts thinking about the implications (below is my brief rendition of said background)—Ms. Gewessler reiterated that success may ‘only be assured if we are united’.

The Covid Puppets

At their meeting, Ms. Gewessler and Mr. Habeck signed a memorandum of understanding to reassure each other that contracts (on natural gas, that is) will be upheld in the event of any adversity. As to why such a written arrangement may be necessary between such close neighbours, well, I suppose the reason for this is the current push to ‘EUropeanise’ energy policies.

So far, no EU/EEC member-state has ever allowed anyone beyond one’s borders to (co)determine energy policy, but it appears that we’re living in quite curious times where ‘anything goes’ appears to be the new spirit of the age.

In the Austro-German case, this holds a bit mor water, though, as Austria’s western states (the Tyrol and Vorarlberg, specifically) are connected to the rest of the republic via infrastructure that runs across German territory. Yet, there’s a plethora of state treaties on precisely these matters that go back to the nineteenth century, and, yes, it’s a huge difference in terms of international law (or what’s left of it) if such treaties are signed and ratified by state parties, as opposed to whatever scrap of paper was signed by Ms. Gewessler and Mr. Habeck yesterday (for a listing of official bilateral treaties between Vienna and Berlin, please see the score-card over at the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

Be that as it may, we do live in curious times, as such a memorandum was also signed between Mr. Habeck and his Czech counterpart a few days ago. As the same report in Der Standard holds, without citing evidence though, Germany ‘vice chancellor assured Czechia gas supplies from Germany if push comes to shove’.

Where, Mr. Habeck, if I may ask, would German gas supplies come from? Did the German government finally figure out how to convert empty woke histrionics into something that’s actually useful, such as energy for heating? Sure, Mr. Habeck voiced many of these absurdities, such as ‘much has been shoved out of the way’, and the assurance, again offered without credible evidence, that European cooperation would be ‘of central importance’. The most hilariously stupid—as in disqualifying for public office, or, really, any office—quote from that press briefing is probably this one (my emphases):

There is an obligation [Verpflichtung] to transfer natural gas to each other: ‘We are a community of destiny [Schicksalsgemeinschaft]. For a long time, energy was not recognised as a precious commodity—this is now a thing of the past.’

Couple of things:

First, I’d like to know about this ‘obligation’, for last time I checked, there’s no such thing in existence (yet), even though the EUrokratura is certainly itching to get their dirty hands on member-states’ energy policies.

Second, the politician—and ‘journalist’—who didn’t figure out that ‘energy’, in particular cheap, reliable, and widely available energy, is the key to industrial development shouldn’t be in power or reporting on it. It’s like: it’s energy, stupid! Apparently Thomas Mayer (who composed the article for Der Standard) is the poster-child for ‘continuing education’, as in: you live, you learn, eh?

Finally, even though that’s an easy one, the word ‘community of destiny’, or Schicksalsgemeinschaft, has a particularly sordid connotation in the German language. Now, I’m the last one to reduce everything and anything to Hitler, but I would like to point out that it brings up certain, not too pleasant, memories of powerful German government officials noting a ‘common destiny’ to its smaller neighbours in Central Europe (yes, I’m referring to Nazi Germany), but there’s plenty of use for this formulation, from the European Coal and Steel Community (see here) to post-Cold War immigration debates in Germany (see here) to the mess masquerading as Euro Crisis (with none other than Ms. Merkel calling the monetary union a Schicksalsgemeinschaft in 2010). It would appear that, not unlike a Matryoshka doll, ‘Europe’ has been moving towards any number of communities of destiny for quite some time now… (/sarcasm)

Speaking of creeping totalitarianism, let’s not forget Xi Jinping’s wording in this context, which renders this notion entirely absurd as it’s apparently used by everyone from the far-right to the far left, from Nazi Germany to post-WW2 Western Europe to Communist China. Here’s what I think anyone should do, courtesy of former West German Economics Minister (and Old Labour politician) Egon Bahr:

The moment a politician starts speaking about his values, as opposed to his convictions, it is time to leave the room.

Returning to Mr. Habeck’s visit to Vienna, here’s what else he had to say (and see if you can spot the logical fallacy in his argument; emphases mine):

‘We may see an interruption of gas flows for months’, said Habeck. The principle that ‘no one should freeze’ is essentially correct—but private households must do their part to solve the problem, because a shutdown of industrial production would entail ‘massive consequences for the people in the country’.

In addition, Habeck said, national compensation mechanisms must be created at the EU level, as ‘there must be compensation in the spirit of solidarity’. There are no answers to this issue yet, he said. Still, the Vice-Chancellor believes that it would be beneficial to develop a joint acquisition plan for gas. That way, the excessive prices on the market could be brought down again. He obviously thinks little of ‘price caps’, as they are being discussed in some countries, including Austria.

So, the solution to the current predicament would be: make the people—who are overwhelmingly opposed to ‘pay the price’ to ‘defend’ Ukraine—contribute to any ‘solution’ dreamed up by feeble-minded low-lives, such as Mr. Habeck and Ms. Gewessler, to say nothing about the other chicken hawks pretending to call the shots on this one.

I do understand that interrupted energy flows would entail mass unemployment, possibly in winter, with inflation and low savings doing their part to finish off the EU régimes. I get it that the grifters who have been pushing these insane ideas are afraid, and they should be: voicing platitudes about ‘shared sacrifices’ and the like cannot gloss over the fact at the heart of the matter: these notions, while couched in feel-good language, are nothing but an announcement to make ‘the people’ pay for the follies and absurdities dreamed up by the politicians and their paymasters.

In other words: watch your wallets.

With inflation running high—here in Norway, prices in June 2022 were up 6.3% compared to twelve months earlier (and that’s only because the gov’t is subsidising energy costs; without these subsidies, year-on-year inflation would be 8.2%). These ‘numbers’ typically exclude food and energy costs, so here goes:

Gasoline and diesel fuel are up 56.4% compared to a year ago, while electricity is about around 30% across the board, which renders the increases in food prices—some 5.6% during the same period—almost unnoticeable.

Keep in mind that wage increases fell quite short of these numbers, and with Central Banks raising interest rates, mortgage payments will also increase markedly.

A ‘New Alliance’

The last word in today’s posting goes to Mr. Haback, who told everyone who cares to listen carefully about the shape of things to come:

There’s now a new alliance between action of climate change [Klimaschutz] and energy security.

As the latter, as stated, now includes ‘private households’ doing ‘their part’ to ensure industry survives the coming man-made energy crunch, it’s perhaps wise to double down on becoming more resilient and less dependent on government handouts, which will, inevitably, become conditional on ever more intrusive mandates, such as repeated Covid Injections, rationing of food and energy (be grateful, serf, lest we’ll hand out even less to you), and the sustained gaslighting, amplified by politicians’ brown-nosing camp followers in legacy media.

Yet, to figure out what has to be done, my personal take is this:

Strive to become less and less dependent on government.

Citizenship, in particular of the active garden variety, consists of rights and obligations; reclamation of the former means acceptance of the latter in one’s personal and public lives.

Independence from outside interference with one’s decisions allows for active political participation.

We can’t all be leaders, and we must never become followers dependent on handouts—but we can all (re)claim citizenship.

Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to it.