After reducing gas supplies through Nord Stream 1 by 60%, Gazprom has announced today that it will deliver only 50% of gas supplies to Italy. France is also not receiving a minor amount of Russian gas, which normally flows through Nord Stream 1. Russia is thus hitting the “co-belligerent” Europeans with the deadly gas weapon. We are one step before a real emergency, with rationing and energy cuts especially in Germany and Italy, where gas constitutes a major component of the national energy mix.
German Green Economy Minister Robert Habeck said that if it is not possible to fill up gas reserves, government mandatory rationing will be necessary. “We will be forced to adopt further saving measures, if needed, by law,” Habeck told ARD television. Gas reserves are only 56% full. The head of the Bundesnetzagentur (Federal Network Agency), which is under Habeck’s ministry, has proposed to reduce home heating to 18°C (64°F). Housing Minister Klara Geywitz, a Social Democrat, said instead that she “considers a government-mandated freezing as nonsense.”
