Can Germany’s economy minister keep the lights on this winter? | Germany

That Robert Habeck, Germany’s economy minister in his recent, pre-ministerial life, wrote a children’s book in which a girl called Emily experiences “how exciting a night-time power cut can be” may yet come back to haunt him.

These days, Habeck is charged with the daunting task of ensuring that the lights do not go out in for real in Europe’s largest economy. And even if Germans have been hoarding candles and camping stoves, just as not so long ago they were doing with toilet paper and pasta, they consider the prospect of a blackout and cold homes to be scary rather than exciting. Reports of people illegally felling trees for fuel have brought back memories of postwar squalor when Berlin’s Tiergarten park was stripped bare as Germans tried to keep warm.

But a blackout is not so unrealistic since Moscow closed down the Nord Stream 1 pipeline more than a week ago. Habeck was in danger of appearing more than a little triumphalist when he remarked to the Bundestag on Thursday, that “we’ve now be independent of Russian gas for a week”; it was not his or Germany’s doing, but Putin’s, that it has reduced Moscow’s leverage on Europe via energy supplies.

While the cutoff may perhaps have helped to ease a little the conscience of many Germans who have felt that every time they turned on the shower they were supporting Russia’s war, more responsibility lies on Habeck’s shoulders right now than any other minister, even Chancellor Olaf Scholz. He must also try to keep the economy going amid gloomy predictions that owing to soaring energy costs and high inflation the country will slide into recession next year.

Bakers in northern Germany on Thursday turned off their lights in protest at the way they had been excluded from the government’s unwieldy sounding Energiekostendämpfungsprogramm, to provide help towards the bills of energy intensive industries, from glass to wallpaper manufacturers. “Lights today, ovens tomorrow?” was the slogan posted on the door of a bakery in the well-to-do Hamburg district of Blankenese. “Bread could yet become a luxury good that only rich people can afford,” the owner said, desperate for recognition that her gas provider had cancelled her contract and she was facing a monthly gas bill that had gone from €3,800 (£3,300) to €8,000.

Just a few months ago many people were regularly glancing at the coronavirus figures. These days it’s the Gasspeicher-Füllstand – gas storage filling level – that attracts feverish attention. On Friday the 47 subterranean facilities around the country were 87% full, thanks to imports from other countries, namely Belgium, Norway and the Netherlands. It sounds high but is only part of the picture as when full, the facilities hold just 28% of the total amount of gas Germany uses in an average year. The aim is for 95% capacity by 1 November, but a harsh winter or any technical mishaps could cause the stores to empty well before winter is out. And there is also next winter to think of, when the stores will likely be empty with no Russian gas in sight.

Industry has already reduced its usage by more than a fifth (but with consequences – ammonia production is…