Status: 11.10.2022 11:07 am
After the Lower Saxony elections, the mood between the FDP and the Greens in the federal government has not eased. On the contrary: The dispute over longer nuclear power plant runtimes is intensifying. Finance Minister Lindner blocked the Habeck plans.
There is an open dispute in the federal government about the further use of nuclear energy. Specifically: The FDP in the form of Finance Minister Christian Lindner considers the continued operation of only two power plants until spring 2023 to be insufficient. The Greens, in the form of Economics Minister Robert Habeck, do. Due to the ministerial dispute, the corresponding draft law from Habeck could not go through the cabinet on Monday as planned. Actually, the cabinet should even vote on it last week.
This shakes Habeck’s plan to have the two nuclear power plants Isar II and Neckarwestheim in operation as an operational reserve to stabilize the power grid and to only take the last nuclear power plant off the grid in mid-April 2023. To do this, the Atomic Energy Act and the Energy Industry Act must be amended. According to current law, they would otherwise have to go offline at the end of 2022.
FDP boss Lindner is not enough for Habeck’s plans
The FDP, on the other hand, is pushing for all three remaining German nuclear power plants to continue operating until 2024 – party leader and finance minister Christian Lindner reaffirmed this on Monday. The third nuclear power plant still in operation in Germany, the Emsland nuclear power plant in Lower Saxony, does not want Habeck to be put on reserve and will be taken off the grid at the end of the year.
“Political Disagreements”
In the Ministry of Economics, the delay was criticized in an unusually clear way by the ministerial colleague. “There was a clear understanding with the coalition partners that, despite different perspectives, this draft law on the operational reserve should be brought through the cabinet this Monday so that it can be dealt with in the parliamentary process,” said the ministry spokeswoman. “Due to political disagreements, however, this agreement was withdrawn.”
Time is of the essence, also because the Isar II nuclear power plant needs repairs if it is to remain connected to the grid beyond the end of the year. “The nuclear power plant operators need clarity,” said the spokeswoman.
The Greens under pressure – the FDP too
This reveals a deep substantive conflict between the two government partners. For the Greens, the stretching operation of two nuclear power plants until spring 2023 is a political impertinence, but due to the energy crisis, the party is forced to swallow it. The FDP, on the other hand, believes that Germany should use all possible energy sources – including nuclear power. The party is pushing the Greens ahead of itself on the issue and is now increasing the pressure by blocking the draft law.
It is obvious that the bitter electoral defeat of the FDP in Lower Saxony has hardly eased the situation. It may also seem understandable that the Greens are now accusing the FDP of partisan tactics. FDP boss Lindner had announced that he wanted to readjust the traffic light course. It’s about “how we turn on the position lights of the FDP,” he said. It sounds as if the Liberals, after four defeats in state elections in a row, will be able to assert themselves more at the expense of the SPD and the Greens and defend their positions more vehemently.
And what does the chancellor say? A spokeswoman for Olaf Scholz recently referred to an agreement in the coalition agreement. There it says: “We are sticking to the German nuclear phase-out.”