Re: Energy Crisis: "This is of course not a crisis that Putin has caused, but that Europe has brought on itself."

Sep 5, 2022
N-VA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT4e_E2pNAE

From Google Translate:

“Such an Energy consultation committee is a high mass of Belgian incapacity and surrealism. It's time for bitter truths: this country is bankrupt. Our debt, our government spending, our deficits: we are becoming the new Greece. De Croo can say a lot, but he can't do anything. There are no reserves, there are no buffers.” Chairman Bart De Wever looked back on the political week in De Zevende Dag and did not mince his words.

The energy crisis is often directly linked to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but according to Bart De Wever this crisis was not caused by Putin. “Europe has declared this on itself by radically phasing out its own primary energy production. The US did just the opposite and is now a net exporter of oil and gas.”

“These are the consequences of the green dogmatics: oil, gas, coal, it was all no longer allowed. We were no longer allowed to invest in reserves. The dumbest countries Germany and Belgium have also abolished their nuclear energy in parallel. We have reduced all our own sources of energy and made ourselves dependent on Putin. Now we hang on to it. Perhaps people should vote for those parties that have seen this coming for a long time and have systematically warned against it," says Bart De Wever.

According to De Wever, the most powerful solutions will have to come from Europe. He refers to the proposal of committee chairman von der Leyen to decouple the price of gas-bound energy production from that of renewable energy. “Great profits are being made with renewable energy. Nuclear power plants are cash cows and the billions are pouring into Paris. The EU can change that by fixing a cost-effective price and skimming off anything above that. That would mean an injection of many billions of euros for our country. In the meantime, we must now go to Paris like beggars. Where we once could have made a lot of profit, we gave away those assets.”

According to Bart De Wever, the fact that the nuclear exit was not stopped in the Swedish government is a 'half truth and a whole lie'. “The nuclear exit is a purple-green law, and now we have a purple-green government again. In the past, I was all alone with my opinion about the nuclear exit. Gwendolyn Rutten, Wouter Beke, even Marghem declared me insane. According to Di Rupo, we lived on another planet with the N-VA. Now suddenly saying that in retrospect 'everyone was involved', that is not correct. I have always been consistent in that and have been defending nuclear energy since the 1980s.”

Flemish energy minister Zuhal Demir received a lot of headwind with her criticism of the consultation committee, but Bart De Wever agrees with her wholeheartedly. “That consultation committee is a high mass of Belgian incapacity and surrealism. With the agreement of our coalition partners, we have put the extension of nuclear power stations and a European reduction in CO2 emission rights on the table, and that is simply brushed aside by the prime minister – from the same party, of course. Tinne Van der Straeten didn't even open her mouth there, but later comes to declare that thanks to her the two youngest nuclear power stations will remain open longer. Yes, then Easter and Christmas fall on the same day.”

“We can take numerous measures”, according to De Wever, “but everything also has drawbacks. Miracles don't exist. We're going to get a wealth tick. It's time for politicians to say that honestly to the people. The calf has already drowned. It's time for bitter truths: this country is bankrupt. Just look at our debt, our government spending, our deficits. We are worse than Southern Europe. That has to do with policy. This government has done nothing about it. I said two years ago: in the next economic shock, we will become the new Greece. We are the weakest of all. De Croo can say a lot, but he can't do anything. There are no reserves, there is no buffer.”