There is a deeper crisis than the energy one, invisible, not addressed by signing an Algerian or Azerbaijani contract.
Germany is beginning to ration heating, electricity in the streets and water in swimming pools. It looks like news from 1942, but instead it is from 2022 and comes from the Financial Times.
Europe’s largest and richest country is running out of energy after Russia decided to cut gas supplies, causing prices to skyrocket and triggering the biggest crisis since 1973. “The situation is more than dramatic,” said Axel Gedaschko, head of the federation of German construction companies GdW. “The social peace of Germany is in grave danger”.
“Hamburg could ration hot water,” headlines Der Spiegel. Economy Minister Robert Habeck has appealed to the population to save energy and take shorter showers. Vonovia, a colossus of residential properties, lowers the temperature of the gas heating of its tenants between 11 pm and 6 am. The district of Lahn-Dill in Frankfurt has suspended hot water in its schools and gyms since mid-September, Düsseldorf closes a huge swimming pool complex, Berlin lowers the thermostat of outdoor pools and Cologne street lighting to 70 for one hundred starting at 11.00pm.
