analysis
Slowed down on the home straight: The temporary halt to the heating law caught many a traffic light politician off guard. The mood in the coalition is already bad enough.
Thomas Heilmann appears satisfied but not euphoric when he enters the large hall in the Federal Press Conference building the following morning. From his point of view, he probably had every reason to do so. The CDU MP has managed to thwart the government coalition. “The traffic light has to be detained,” says former Berlin Senator for Justice and lawyer Heilmann.
Caught cold at the summer festival
The decision of the Federal Constitutional Court reached the capital on Wednesday evening, when celebrations were taking place in many places, albeit perhaps less boisterously than in previous years. The summer festivals of the parties and ministries in the last week of meetings before the summer break have a long tradition. In the midst of this festive mood, the news from Karlsruhe burst. And caught one or two politicians in the traffic light coalition cold.
The SPD fell into a brief state of shock at its summer party. Months of wrangling over the heating law lies behind the deputies of the traffic light parties. And some of them show the long night sessions too. Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other leading comrades withdrew to consult. You should have guessed that the postponement of the vote will, above all, prolong the debate.
First finger pointing
It is clear that the discussions about the heating law will be extended. No sooner have the leaders of the SPD, Greens and FDP parliamentary groups started to think about how to proceed with the proceedings than the blame begins. The traffic light deputies no longer adhere to a common language rule. There is little or nothing to be felt these days of common ground, a joint project.
As expected, FDP MP Frank Schäffler was one of the first to press ahead and blame the Greens via Twitter. “Thoroughness comes before speed. It was wrong to fall for the Greens here,” said Schäffler. Another pinprick that sits. Wolfgang Kubicki didn’t take long to ask either. The FDP deputy branded the Karlsruhe judgment as a “receipt for the Greens”.
While the FDP taunts, the SPD exercises composure. The leaders of the Greens are also demonstratively calm. The parliamentary group leader Britta Haßelmann emphasizes that Germany’s highest court only criticized the procedure and not the content.
The leaders of the traffic light factions must now reschedule.
Best mood in the Union
The mood in the largest opposition party, on the other hand, is excellent. Although the Union faction did not join Heilmann’s lawsuit, they are now happily and eloquently claiming the success in Karlsruhe for themselves. CDU leader Friedrich Merz speaks of a “severe defeat for Olaf Scholz’s federal government”. From his point of view, the whole process is nothing short of disrespectful towards Parliament.
Merz is trying to take advantage of the current weakness of the traffic light and position his party as an alternative. Even before the Karlsruhe verdict, prominent party representatives such as Jens Spahn announced that they wanted to reverse the heating law if the next federal election were successful.
Hardness clashes in the coalition
The history of the heating law is full of technical and communication errors. First a pierced, uncoordinated draft law from the Ministry of Economics, then an agonizing and agitated discussion about heating bans and a lack of heat planning in the municipalities – the Building Energy Act (GEG), as it is officially called, has led to a lot of uncertainty in recent months, including among parliamentarians . They were overwhelmed with letters and e-mails from citizens and were finally unable to give them any well-founded answers.
The design was changed again and again, every detail was wrestled with and compromises that had already been found were untied again. The tough arguments about the heating law have left their mark on everyone involved. It certainly takes imagination to imagine that the upcoming summer break could be enough to mend the rifts in the coalition and to find a way back to trusting cooperation.
And Thomas Heilman? Unlike many CDU representatives, he sticks to his matter-of-fact tone. He would actually have done the traffic light a favour, he says without malice.