lmao they say Germany "had to" take on high energy prices by sanctioning Russia. By using passive voice to try to avoid saying the obvious, which is that Germany is doing this to itself, they are implicitly taking the socialist position, which is that Germany is just a US pawn.
The article is written as a series of disconnected unserious narratives. You're meant to assume they are explanatory of Germany having economic problems, like not having enough big startups (lmao). Germany has had good economic statistics without that metric for ages, this is obviously not explanatory, but self-imposed high energy costs is a massive change. And there is little discussion of Germany's greenwashed denuclearization that left them dependent on fossil fuels nor the neoliberalism favored by outlets like The Economist.