Martin Stümpfig has had easier appearances than this one on Tuesday evening in the state parliament. He has to speak for the Greens, topic: nuclear power. And that, just an hour after such breaking news flashed: “Habeck buckles – two nuclear power plants remain on the grid”. Stumpig struggles for balance. “A secure power supply is not possible with nuclear power,” says the energy policy spokesman for the Greens parliamentary group. But also: “Robert Habeck does it very responsibly.” The ridicule is blunt and the Greens are still safe. Laughter, heckling, all very malicious.
Two of the last three German nuclear power plants will probably run longer, that was the message from Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens), which particularly affects Bavaria. In addition to the Neckarwestheim 2 power plant in Baden-Württemberg, the Isar 2 kiln in Essenbach near Landshut is also to remain connected to the grid until mid-April 2023 instead of being switched off on December 31, 2022 as planned. Prime Minister Markus Söder and his CSU in particular had been drumming for months for Isar 2 to continue. Now the glee is great.
“Another indication of his incompetence,” tweeted as one of the first CSU politicians the member of the Bundestag Florian Hahn about Habeck. Söder, who only called for Habeck’s expulsion on Sunday, immediately shares the tweet. CSU General Secretary Martin Huber also scoffs at the Green Federal Minister, who announced the extension of nuclear power “after he had been quarrelling for weeks and was ideologically blinded”. The step is right, “but it comes too late and doesn’t go far enough”. If the CSU has its way, not just two, but all three nuclear power plants should remain connected to the grid – until 2024.
At the BN they have little understanding for Habeck
The morning after, Stümpfig can still clearly hear how difficult it is for him to swallow the toad. “The situation in France is just a lot more tense than we all thought,” he says. “Half of the nuclear power plants there are still off the grid, it’s quite possible that the bottleneck there will also have very serious effects on us.” That is why Stümpfig calls Habeck’s statement that, according to the current status, it is necessary to operate Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim over the winter, “the logical step – even if we all of course wished for the definitive end of nuclear power in Germany on December 31”.
At the Bund Naturschutz (BN) they show much less understanding for Habeck. “The stretching operation can only compensate for a possible lack of electricity in Germany to a very small extent,” says BN boss Richard Mergner. “The risks emanating from the continued operation of the nuclear power plants, on the other hand, are considerable and open the door to further service life extensions.” At the same time Mergner wedges against the CSU. “You always have to keep in mind who is partly to blame for this situation,” he says. “It was the CSU that blocked the expansion of renewable energies in Bavaria for years and, with their policies, made us more dependent on Russian gas than any other federal state.”
As far as the CSU is concerned, Ludwig Hartmann goes one step further. “Söder is not primarily concerned with ensuring that the energy supply is secure this winter,” says the Greens parliamentary group leader. “In reality, he wants – just like his economics minister Hubert Aiwanger – a renaissance of nuclear power, at least for the next ten years.” But that will definitely not come, Habeck and the nuclear power plant operators made clear in their key issues paper on the stretching operation. “Even if the two nuclear power plants are now running a quarter of a year longer: the nuclear phase-out remains the same,” says Hartmann. “That’s what counts.”