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Morning light lights the landfall facility of the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline and the transfer station of the OPAL gas pipeline, the Baltic Sea Pipeline Link, in Lubmin, Germany, Thursday, July 21, 2022
GERMANY’S Left Party is calling for demonstrations every Monday against a new energy levy that will cost households hundreds of euros extra every year.
The party’s parliamentary commissioner for the east Soren Pellman said: “We need Monday demonstrations like [those against] Hartz IV,” referring to weekly demos staged against attacks on unemployment benefit imposed by the then Social Democrat-Greens coalition in 2004.
A levy of 2.419 cents per kilowatt hour has been imposed to help energy companies cope with rising wholesale costs caused by the disruption to Russian gas supplies resulting from the invasion of Ukraine and retaliatory sanctions.
Campaigners urge government to ignore profiteering oil lobbyists and help those hit hardest by rising energy prices
In part two of May’s Berlin Bulletin, VICTOR GROSSMAN, having assessed the policies of the new government, looks at how the opposition is faring