They are now swearing on all channels: nuclear power plants will soon be over in Germany, for sure. “We are crystal clear on that. The nuclear phase-out will not be shaken,” said the first parliamentary secretary, Irene Mihalic, on Wednesday. In the case of the Greens, however, the certainty is now melting faster and faster: that the nuclear phase-out is really sustainable. And that the party can ensure that. In any case, his people can hardly keep up with the hasty Economics Minister Robert Habeck. The green mood? Rather thundery.
On Tuesday evening, Robert Habeck publicly announced what many Green Party politicians actually considered to be completely unrealistic: “As of now”, it can be expected that two southern German nuclear power plants will have to go into reserve operation after the end of the year, according to the minister. In his estimation, the Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim 2 nuclear power plants could not even be shut down in December because there was a lack of nuclear power from France than feared.
Habeck took his party and the Green parliamentary group by surprise with this announcement. You could also say: tricked. And there are MPs in the parliamentary group who consider the whole affair to be downright unfortunate. Because right up to the end, Habeck had assured that two nuclear power plants in the south were only kept operational to rule out any risk of serious power shortages. The power plants would be shut down and only restarted if grid stability was actually at risk.
For his party, that initially meant the all-clear. The Greens fought for decades to phase out nuclear power. The fact that it could be slowed down shortly before the finish is considered by many to be the worst possible energy accident. Because the Union and FDP have long been pushing for the continued operation of the piles, every little bit of electricity counts in the crisis. At the Green base, of course, many see it differently. “Not a day longer – switch off all nuclear power plants,” says an emergency motion for the Green party conference in October. And now that reserve operations are becoming more likely, things could get uncomfortable at the meeting in Bonn.
Jürgen Trittin is one of the spokesmen in the debate – against his own minister
Because Minister of Economics Habeck now says: Sorry. There will probably not be a state of rest for two nuclear power plants in southern Germany, at least if nothing serious changes, he said on Tuesday. A law that is intended to define exactly the conditions under which reserve operations are to take place is to be introduced in Parliament in October. However, with Habeck’s assessment on Tuesday, it is highly unlikely that the stretching operation will actually be prevented.
A number of Green MPs are said to have reacted with irritation and annoyance to this news. Only a few hours before Habeck’s press conference, important Green spokesmen in the nuclear debate had no idea what conclusions the minister had come to with nuclear power plant operators. Former Environment Minister Jürgen Trittin, for example, gave it to be understood on Tuesday afternoon that it was not just the minister, but above all the Green Party Congress that had to decide under which conditions nuclear power plants could or could not run longer. “We should condition the reserve operation precisely and define reliable, precise parameters for which scenarios a stretching operation is necessary,” said Trittin of the SZ. “There has to be a sensible, rational review process for that.” The procedure that the party congress decides is “open-ended”; in the end, the Bundestag must “actively agree” to such a regulation.
The party congress determines the itinerary, the economics minister proposes appropriate amendments to the law, the Bundestag decides with the votes of the coalition, that’s how it sounded. But it is now becoming increasingly clear: the party congress may decide what it wants, reality is faster – and so is Habeck.
Habeck could not be stopped by the parliamentary group. He immediately made the matter public
Because if what came out of Parliament on Wednesday is true, then Habeck informed the Green members of the Bundestag last week and this Tuesday that there could be reserve operation in January and at least one reactor in Bavaria would have to continue running until spring , because it can only be restarted once. The fact that Habeck himself was already expecting such a stretching operation months before the decision was taken by surprise by the minister did many MPs. There were many surprised questions in the group, it said, and a long list of speakers. But Habeck was unstoppable and left immediately after the meeting for his press conference, where he publicly announced the matter.
What remained were green parliamentarians, who until the very end had actually believed that they were setting the course in the nuclear power cause. Because it was the group that had urged Habeck over the summer to only use the two southern German nuclear power plants as an operational reserve – i.e. to leave open whether and when this reserve will be activated. There is no majority in the group for an automatic stretching operation. Habeck, who actually wanted an automatic stretching operation, only came up with the emergency operation under pressure from his party friends – and from then on was sharply criticized by the opposition and the FDP. With his statement on Tuesday, he has freed himself from this grip for the time being.
In the parliamentary group, however, it is now difficult to hide one’s own anger. Without any need, the impression was created that the continued operation of the power plants was already certain, it said. At the same time, you don’t want to publicly stab Habeck in the back. The situation is “highly dynamic,” said Parliamentary Secretary Irene Mihalic on Wednesday. In the matter, however, Habeck’s assessment has not changed anything. Because whether the reserve operation will actually start in January or not has not yet been decided. “We’re not talking about a runtime extension here. We’re also not talking about buying new fuel rods. We’re talking about a grid reserve.” And: “The nuclear phase-out is a done deal.” You could put it another way: the minister has hurried on from his deputies