europe

To me the most insane thing about these Germany deindustrialization stories is that German domestic media has successfully avoided talking about sanctions as the real reason. For the first year until 2023 they mostly denied it happening altogether, then they started acknowledging high energy costs but blamed Russia, or rather "energy costs have risen due to Russia's unprovoked brutal war of aggression against Ukraine". It's really maddening to see it happen and people sincerely believing all that, and when you mention sanctions it's always "oh the sanctions are necessary, and I'm sure they hurt Russia more".

Deeply unserious country. I wonder and also fear what Germany will do when the industrial base has been substancially degraded, two to five years from now. Those jobs are gone for good then.