German Economics Minister Robert Habeck called a press conference this morning to announce the removal of his state secretary Patrick Graichen, the main architect in the ministry of the insane “Energiewende” Graichen—and Habeck—had come under a lot of pressure, after it became publicly known that Graichen had supported a candidate who was his best man at his own wedding for the chairman’s post at the German energy agency, a for-profit private public partnership.
Graichen has been the long-time key person in a web of governmental/non-governmental organizations—like Agora Energiewende, BUND (Friends of the Earth Germany) and others. These networks are now under a lot of public scrutiny because of external domestic and foreign financing (e.g., by the Climate Emergency Fund, and others).
Habeck, who wanted to keep Graichen, this morning had to admit that the “compliance” rules were not fulfilled, and preemptively presented another case, which supposedly added up to his final decision. This was a previously not public case of €600,000 government funding for a project in the context of the National Climate protection initiative. The project was given to an institution where Graichen’s sister had until very recently been on the board.
Habeck protested against the “campaign” against Graichen, led partially by “right-extreme networks and pro Russian networks.” However, he had to concede that something obviously was going wrong in the Kingdom of Habeck.
When asked about the prospects of his insane “heat pump law” scheduled to go through the Bundestag before the summer break, he made a not too subtle plea of wishing that the scheme not fall apart. After all, the cabinet has agreed to it already. But he does not seem to be really sure whether or not it will hold. Also, when asked how he would make sure that the next state secretary does not again have such connections as the previous one, he was clearly not amused: “I will not nominate my best man for that position.”
Graichen, before becoming state secretary, had various positions in AGOR Energiewende, which has played a key role in energy policy. Now known as” Soft Energy for Europe Platform GmbH,” this private organization receives massive funding from the private and public sectors, but what is outstanding is the fact that no less that €15 million of its €19 million budget is derived from some of the most important U.S. private foundations that want to transform German and European energy, transportation, industry and agriculture into “climate neutral” suicide.
Hopefully, this is the beginning of the end of this government.