Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) likes to flirt with his down-to-earth North German roots.

Regarding the excitement about the gas levy, he remarks that it is morally wrong that companies also receive money that, "let me put it in Low German: earned a pig's money".

If one reads Habeck's attempts to explain the levy fiasco, one would like to reply to him in North German: "Donnerlüttchen, you're talking really hard stuff!" Because the fact that the chosen way of supporting the importers turns out to be a dead end is openly justified by Habeck with a lack of competence: The fundamentally correct idea proved problematic, "because we didn't know, to be honest - and nobody did - how this gas market was intertwined, which companies had any shares in subsidiaries and so on".

The minister had previously explained that the upheavals arose because all buyers of Russian gas enjoyed identical rights in the sense of equality before the law: "A legion of lawyers explained it to me like this." Then Germany's most popular politician drew a crude analogy to child benefit, that parents received regardless of their need.

This is based on the constitutionally guaranteed subsistence level for young people – a completely different requirement.

And if Habeck employs a "legion of lawyers", why not an army of business economists and accountants dedicated to the structure of the gas industry?

Especially since he has always claimed to have all claims thoroughly examined by auditors.

The gas levy, a crazy idea from the start, does not calm the market, but the opposite.

The state should protect companies that are really threatened from going out of business, but nothing more.

Owners and customers have to feel the emergency and support it, through losses and higher prices.

And Habeck?

His honesty is disarming, but also reveals a fair amount of naivety that Germany cannot afford in these perilous times.

Being nice is not enough for a crisis minister.