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By MATTHEW KARNITSCHNIG
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SPY LIKES US
Brace yourself: Who would have thunk it? The haute volée of the far-right, pro-Putin, anti-EU, anti-U.S., Ukraine-hating Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is in bed not just with the Russkies, but the Chinese as well!
Didn’t see that coming: Prosecutors in Dresden are investigating whether Maximilian Krah, the AfD’s cigar-chomping Spitzenkandidat for the EU election, accepted illicit payments from Russia and China “for his work as an MEP.” So far, the AfD is sticking with thrice-married father of eight (!), who denies any wrongdoing.
Love is blind: “Maybe it’s not your own country that you love so much, maybe it’s dictatorships like China, Russia and Belarus,” SPD lawmaker Dirk Wiese shot in the AfD’s direction during a Bundestag debate Thursday.
Awkward: Trouble for Krah is that police on Monday arrested one of his aides, Chinese-born Jian Guo, for allegedly spying for China. Prosecutors say Guo, an avowed Xi Xinping devotee who runs a sideline importing lamps from China, used his access to the European Parliament to pass information onto his handlers in Beijing.
On the bright side: At least someone’s interested in the work of the EU Parliament!
Spies everywhere? The allegations against Krah and his aide could not have come at a worse time for the AfD. The party was in the midst of trying to deal with a separate case concerning alleged influence peddling involving the Russians and the No. 2 man on their Europe list, Petr Bystron. The Czech-born Bundestag MP is suspected of accepting money from a source linked to Russia in return for spreading Kremlin propaganda. According to German and Czech media reports, authorities in Prague have both audio and video evidence of Bystron accepting cash. He denies any wrongdoing.
AfD kaputt? Unlikely. Like Europe’s other far-right parties, the AfD has proved resilient over the years, bouncing back from scandals in short order. That said, the allegations against Krah and Bystron certainly won’t help the party’s chances of scoring the hoped-for big win at the EU election. Even before these latest accusations, the AfD had been on the defensive over the participation of some of its members in a secret meeting in Potsdam, where the idea of expelling migrants, including those with German citizenship, was discussed.
The radical plan was too much for some of the party’s erstwhile supporters and its poll numbers slipped from a high of 22 percent in January to 18 percent currently.
‘They all do it:’ That said, even after the furor, the AfD was still polling second behind the CDU and ahead of all three governing parties. The spying allegations will again test the AfD’s staying power, but the party’s opponents shouldn’t get their hopes up. To begin, many AfD voters, especially those in the east of Germany, are themselves pro-Russian and may not mind that much. As for the alleged illicit payments, many Germans we’ve spoken to believe that “they all do it.”
ATOMIC LIES
Skeletons in closet: Try as he might, the Greens’ de-facto leader, Robert Habeck, can’t shake Germany’s nuclear era. Soaring energy prices triggered by Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022 triggered a debate over whether to extend the operation of Germany’s nuclear power plants. Habeck, who is both vice chancellor and economy minister, was against the idea.
Flashback: Angela Merkel decided to accelerate the decommissioning of Germany’s nuclear plants in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima disaster in 2011, because you never know when a tsunami might hit Germany. The move was controversial considering that Germany’s nuclear power stations were functioning well, had been paid for and could have remained in operation for another few decades.
Green Dream: For the Greens, a party founded in opposition to all things nuclear, it was an article of faith that the plants needed to be killed off, no matter what. So when the spike in energy costs sparked intense pressure to extend their operation, Habeck rejected the idea, arguing that his ministry’s experts had determined that “for reasons of nuclear security,” it would be too dangerous to do so.
An inconvenient truth: According to an explosive report published by German magazine Cicero, leading experts in the economy ministry were arguing the opposite of what Habeck maintained. Far from wanting to switch the reactor off, the officials made the case for keeping them in operation.
Nothing to see here: On his way into a meeting of the Bundestag’s energy committee on Friday, Habeck dismissed the furor, insisting that the main factor in his decision was the recommendation of utilities, which told him at the time that it wouldn’t be possible to keep the plants running because they’d run out of fuel rods. What’s more, electricity “prices have fallen,” Habeck said.
Truthiness: Though it’s accurate that German electricity prices have come off their highs, that’s mainly because industrial demand has fallen off a cliff amid Germany’s economic stagnation. What’s more, the country still has some of Europe’s highest energy prices, which is why many businesses would have preferred to keep the nuclear plants running.
Bottom line: The episode will further erode confidence in the Greens, who have recently recorded their lowest poll results, 13 percent, in six years. Following Habeck’s shambolic handling of a new law on household heating last year, the nuclear flap will harden the impression among many Germans that they Greens put ideology before pragmatism.
TURKISH DELIGHT
PRESIDENTIAL DÖNER: When German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier headed to Ankara this week, he took along, as one does, a 60-kilo slab of frozen meat and a Turkish-German kebab Meister to prepare it. Because if there’s one things Turks like, it’s a good kebab! At least that seems to have been Steinmeier’s reasoning.
German tact: Reducing Turkey — which was already one of the world’s great civilizations when hairy German tribes were still running through the forest clubbing one another — to the döner kebab is more than insulting.
Needless to say, the reaction to the ham-handed gesture was swift and withering. “While people of Turkish descent fight for their identity and a place in this society, the president, apparently with the best of intentions, has relegated them to the döner kebab stand,” Lale Akgün, a former MP from Steinmeier’s own SPD lamented to Der Spiegel. On social media, many wondered whether the president would take a pizza along the next time he visits Italy.
Sultan of trolling: Not to be outdone, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan served up his own kebab during a reception for Steinmeier in Ankara.
IN OTHER NEWS
TRANSATLANTIC: You know all that talk we hear in Europe about America’s decline? “Take a deep breath since this goes against most everything you hear about the U.S. these days — this is and on current trends is going to be the ‘American Century.’ Again,” writes POLITICO Europe’s founding editor Matt Kaminski in this absolute must read this week.
HELP WANTED: It’s so hard to find good help these days. Especially in Germany! Try as they might, our good friends at the New York Times have been unable to find a bureau chief for their Berlin office. Once one of the most coveted posts in the Gray Lady’s empire, it now strikes fear in the hearts of the paper’s progressive newsroom. We get it. We wouldn’t want to compete with POLITICO’S Berlin crew either! If you’re interested and possess at least remedial English skills, apply here.
WEEK AHEAD
GUESTS: Chancellor Olaf Scholz receives Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi in Berlin on Sunday and Milojko Spajić, the Prime Minister of Montenegro, on Monday.
NEIGHBORS: President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will travel to Prague on Monday and Tuesday to meet Czech President Petr Pavel.
WHAT NEXT FOR THE COALITION? Finance Minister Christian Lindner discusses with citizens in Bonn on Monday.
HATE MAIL: Send complaints (if you must), tips, checks and random thoughts to mkarnitschnig @politico.eu. You’ll also find me on X @mkarnitschnig.
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