Have a Happy New Year, Berliners!

Stay home and crawl under bed at midnight.

New Year’s Eve: Around 3,000 additional police officers on duty – In order to prevent New Year’s Eve riots and attacks on the emergency services as far as possible, the Berlin police largely rely on the concept from last year.

Same procedure as every year.

Germans would never seek to influence foreign elections!

It’s just not their thing.

Musk causes uproar for backing Germany’s far-right party ahead of key elections – Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk caused uproar after backing Germany’s far-right party in a major newspaper ahead of key parliamentary elections in the Western European country, leading to the resignation of the paper’s opinion editor in protest.

Germany is to vote in an early election on Feb. 23 after Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party governing coalition collapsed last month in a dispute over how to revitalize the country’s stagnant economy.

It’s just a phase-out the Germans are going through

They’ll come to their senses soon enough.

Or maybe they won’t. Hard to say for sure.

Swedish minister open to new measures to tackle energy crisis, blames German nuclear phase-out – Sweden is ready to introduce new measures to tackle the country’s soaring energy prices, Energy Minister Ebba Busch announced on Thursday (12 December), blaming Germany’s nuclear phase-out for the crisis in the country and at EU level…

One main reason Busch cited for the surge in electricity prices is Germany’s decision to dismantle its nuclear power plants, saying it also has detrimental effects for Europe.

“I’m furious with the Germans,” Busch told Swedish broadcaster SVT.

“They have made a decision for their country, which they have the right to make. But it has had very serious consequences,” she added.

German of the day: Dunkelflaute

That means the “dark duldrums.”

It’s dark here all the time these days, in other words. And there’s not much wind either. “Renewables” don’t seem to like that for some reason.

A weather phenomenon dubbed ‘Dunkelflaute’ is causing havoc in Germany and pushing energy prices to 2-decade highs – A weather phenomenon dubbed “Dunkelflaute” that causes chilly, low-wind conditions is sweeping across Europe and causing fresh havoc to Germany’s embattled economy, where energy prices have risen to a two-decade high.

A Dunkelflaute, translated as “dark doldrums” or “dark wind lull,” is the bain of renewables companies, with an extended period of low wind and cloudy weather hurting their ability to generate electricity from either wind or solar.

We must destroy the economy in order to save the economy

It’s the economic science, stupid.

German union boss urges Berlin to scrap borrowing cap to safeguard economy – IG Metall chair Christiane Benner addresses thousands of VW workers striking over planned closure of several plants.

The head of Germany’s most powerful trade union has called on Berlin to drop its cap on new borrowing to safeguard the future of Europe’s largest economy.

IG Metall chair Christiane Benner said the country should follow the example of the US and China, which are heavily supporting their domestic industries, meaning the borrowing limit had to “stop — immediately, not after the elections”.

Unexpected?

Not if you live in Germany.

It’s the cost of enertgy, stupid.

German industrial output unexpectedly falls in October – German industrial production unexpectedly fell in October, owing mainly to declines in energy production and in the automotive industry, the federal statistics office said on Friday.

Production was down by 1.0% in October from the previous month, the office said.

Scholz hits the campaign trail in Kyiv

Soon to be fired as chancellor in the German Bundestag in order to run for chancellor and be fired by German voters a second time in the upcoming German election, Olaf Scholz is now doing the Staatsmann (statesman) number in Ukraine.

The visit comes weeks before the German leader is set to ask his parliament for a vote of no confidence, which he is widely expected to lose.

Germany’s Olaf Scholz arrived in Ukraine on Monday for his second trip to the region during his tenure as chancellor.

His visit comes both at a time of escalated Russian attacks on Ukraine and as his government faces a political crisis at home that looks likely to remove him from power during elections in February next year.