Dhe CDU chairman Friedrich Merz warned against the Greens being held hostage ideologically in the dispute over the continued operation of German nuclear power plants. In view of the gas shortage, all three remaining German nuclear power plants would have to remain connected to the grid, said Merz on Saturday at the state party conference of the Southwest CDU in Villingen-Schwenningen (Schwarzwald-Baar district). Merz said the whole world was stunned by the debate going on in this country.
The CDU federal chairman Friedrich Merz at the state party conference of the CDU Baden-Württemberg
Source: Silas Stein/dpa
With a view to the decisions of the Green Party Congress in Bonn, Merz said that one was on the way to “taking the hostages of a Green Party, which, for purely ideological reasons, is taking this sensible path that the overwhelming majority of people in Germany consider sensible blocked – only so that the founding myth of this party survives this party congress undamaged”.
The traffic light coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP has been arguing for weeks about how to deal with nuclear energy. On Friday evening in Bonn, the delegates at the Green Party Congress decided with a clear majority to keep the two southern German nuclear power plants Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim 2 in reserve until April 15 and to continue using them to generate electricity if necessary. The third remaining Emsland nuclear power plant, on the other hand, is to be finally shut down on January 1, 2023.