Corruption is everywhere, it's just on different levels. Usually in more "developed" (I don't like that word) countries you see corruption on the highest levels, and people actually get away with it.
This isn’t about a particular political party.
Even the much hated fauci was a career bureaucrat under numerous administrations, of both parties.
It hardly supports the thesis above. Germany is not rotten to the core by corruption. It's not a constant hindrance to someone trying to get things done.
Yeah, and long after that they decided to build a second pipeline (Nord Stream 2).
And before that, they've been received the same gas from the same foreign company over the ex-SU Ukrainian pipelines.
And five years later we will likely see Turkish pipelines (still bearing Russian gas) prolonged to Hungary, from where it will reach Germany once again.
And that foreign company isn't even running those Nord Stream pipelines - they were largely German, due to legislations requiring separation of the pipeline operator and the supplier.
Don't underestimate how much Germany had profited from all the cheap gas and infrastructure investments from the said foreign country, up until they managed to loose it all just for the sake of political appearance and no real substantial win.
I wonder if we would some day see Scholz in some American LNG company for which the nation now has to pay order of magnitude more, than it ever paid to Russia.