“Then maybe we’ll fight for number one again”
Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck
Source: REUTERS
“We have a great opportunity to prove ourselves in the crisis”: Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck hopes that climate policy will increase the number of votes for the Greens. He backed Patrick Graichen, Secretary of State for Energy, who had come under criticism.
BEconomics Minister Robert Habeck is confident that the Greens will gain favor with voters in the long term as a result of their actions in climate policy. “We have a great opportunity to prove ourselves in the crisis,” said the Green politician on Friday evening at a stage talk by the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland” “RND vor Ort” in Kiel. Referring to the longer nuclear lifetimes and the greater use of coal power, he emphasized that the Greens had shown: “We jumped over every shadow.” A lot could still happen before the 2025 federal elections. But: “If an answer was given to all questions, then maybe we’ll fight for the one again,” stressed Habeck.
The Greens are currently between 15 and 18 percent in polls, slightly above the 2021 election result. In the middle of last year, however, the party achieved poll numbers of well over 20 percent.
When asked whether he or Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock would then accept the chancellor candidacy, Habeck said: “Anything can happen. The last thing that happens is that we decide this question.
Habeck backed his criticized State Secretary for Energy Patrick Graichen. “There was a mistake. The mouse doesn’t bite off a thread,” says Habeck. But: “In my opinion, Patrick Graichen is the man who saved Germany from a serious energy crisis.” He brought the coal-fired power plants to the grid, let the last nuclear power plants run longer and brought the liquid gas storage tanks back into a legal norm.
Graichen had informed Habeck at the beginning of the week that the designated new managing director of the federal German Energy Agency, Michael Schäfer, was his best man. Graichen was a member of a selection committee to fill the management board. The procedure for filling the post is now to be reviewed and, if necessary, re-launched. Graichen regretted his actions on Friday and spoke of a mistake.
Habeck also campaigned for capping the price of electricity for industry with state funds. “The whole economy is currently talking intensively about an industrial electricity price, and I think we have to do it,” he said at the “RND” event. That costs money, and that requires agreement in the federal government.
“If we cap prices, we lose money. If we don’t cap them, we may lose the industries of the future,” said Habeck, naming a period of four or five years. Germany must be careful that key technologies do not migrate to China and the USA during this time.
German industry has long complained that electricity prices are a locational disadvantage in international competition. Habeck had already announced that he wanted to present a concept for an industrial electricity price.