Meet the man who may decide the fate of German industry

accepted the job as boss of the Federal Network Agency, Germany’s regulator for electricity, natural gas, telecommunications, post and railway markets, he hoped he would spend his time on expanding renewables and laying fibre-optic cables. A former state minister for the environment and agriculture in Schleswig-Holstein, he is close to Robert Habeck, the federal economy minister and a fellow Green. He cares deeply about the Greens’ favourite causes, such as a rapid shift to carbon-neutrality, which make captains of German industry uneasy. Those priorities will have to wait, Mr Müller admits to at his office in Bonn. He took over a few days after Russia attacked Ukraine. From day one he has spent the bulk of his time thinking about the supply and distribution of natural gas—the lifeblood of Germany’s industrial economy, the flow of which has been staunched by Russia in response to Western sanctions. “We are in significantly better shape than everyone forecast this summer,” he says reassuringly. But, he quickly adds, it is not an all-clear.