German politicians and long-time critics of the contentious natural gas project Nord Stream 2 have called on Europe to halt the construction of the pipeline after the poisoning of Russian opposition figurehead Alexei Navalny. Norbert Röttgen, a lawmaker with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), called for a “clear European response” and said “diplomatic rituals” would no longer suffice as a reaction to Russia’s “inhumane politics”, according to Clean Energy Wire, ZDF and Deutschlandfunk.

Given the poisoning and the situation in Belarus, the completion of Nord Stream 2 “would be the ultimate confirmation for Vladimir Putin that he is pursuing exactly the right policy because the West is doing nothing, at least in the areas that interest him,” Röttgen told public broadcaster ZDF.

Röttgen, the head of the foreign affairs committee in the German Bundestag, is running for the CDU chairmanship, which will likely be decided at a party conference in December.

The Greens’ parliamentary group head Katrin Göring-Eckardt said the “obvious attempted murder” calls for a “very clear response” from Germany and the EU. “Such a response, for example, would be to make it very clear: Nord Stream 2 is no longer something that we can drive forward together with Russia,” she said.