Hans-Wilhelm Zaure journalist reports the lobbying by the German government under the leadership of Angela Merkel Construction of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline. According to access to 57 thousand pages of documents through the administrative court of Berlin, the German government agreed on a catalog of measures for political support of the project in 2015.
Ministries of the Federal Chancellor, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finance and Energy actively lobbied the project. Minister of Economy and Energy, Sigmar Gabriel, personally convinced this, meeting with Gerhard Schroeder and the management of partner companies.
The project pipes were ordered from companies that had ties with the chosen ministers, which allowed them to improve their financial situation.
In 2019, Energy Minister Peter Altmeyer tried to continue construction at the end of October, but this failed because of new US sanctions.
In October 2022, Merkel stated that she did not regret the support of the project. This project was canceled by the new Chancellor Olaf Scholts in 2022.
Merkel acknowledged that she was counting on economic ties with Russia, but could not influence Putin's intentions.
