Since June, several initiatives of Mittelstand entrepreneurs against the government-made “gas emergency” and other repercussions of the anti-Russia sanctions have mobilized for a broadening of protests.
With a “Dessau Declaration,” craftsmen in the state of Saxe-Anhalt are mobilizing for a big rally August 28 in Dessau under the slogan “Peace is not everything, but there will be nothing without peace!” demonstrating that the sanctions have caused intolerable damage to Germany’s economy along with effects of ill-conceived actions by the government. Instead of focussing on considerations about weapons deliveries to Ukraine, the government should focus on diplomacy to end the war, the initiative insists, charging that billions of euros are spent on the continuation of the war, while at the same time the billions needed to restore infrastructure, healthcare, and maintain social security for the citizens are not made available.
A gathering of 50 Mittelstand entrepreneurs at the end of June in Limburg, Hesse, representing 4,500 jobs altogether, launched a comparable initiative, with entrepreneurs making the point that without continued gas supplies, their main client BASF will not be able to continue production, which will cause the collapse of deliveries by these companies, which are suppliers of BASF. The gas sanctions are meaningless, they charge, because, although gas is not coming from Russia to Germany via pipelines, Russian gas is increasingly coming by ship from India, at higher prices than before. The planned total shutdown of nuclear power worsens the situation, they argue. Therefore the government’s policy has to change to keep affordable energy available for the productive Mittelstand and consumers. The Limburg event sees itself as a starting point for a broad campaign of the Mittelstand on a national scale.
