According to a government spokeswoman, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is confident that an agreement will soon be reached in the coalition dispute over the continued use of nuclear power plants. The traffic light coalition is in intensive talks about this, said a spokeswoman for Scholz in Berlin. It is in the interest and it is the will of the chancellor that a compromise is found very quickly.
Apparently, no further top meeting is planned for Monday. The German press agency learned this from government circles. When there is a new date is open.
On Sunday afternoon, Scholz met with Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) in the Chancellery for a crisis meeting. Nothing was subsequently revealed about the content.
Fronts between Greens and FDP hardened
The Greens want to keep the two southern German nuclear power plants Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim 2 in reserve until April 15 and continue to use 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. The Green Party Congress in Bonn confirmed this line. The delegates rejected the purchase of new fuel rods for longer operation.
But that is already a compromise offer, said party leader Ricarda Lang in the ZDF “Morgenmagazin”. “We did offer something: what’s on the table now, the so-called operational reserve. That’s not the original green line.”
The FDP, on the other hand, insists on its position of continuing to operate the three power plants that are still running until spring 2024. “We need a lot more power,” said the energy policy spokesman for the parliamentary group, Michael Kruse, on Deutschlandfunk. Electricity prices have exploded, there are the first bankruptcies, and the economy is shutting down. “Taking capacity out of the market sends the wrong signal,” he argued.
Lindner: “Everything on the grid that creates capacity”
FDP leader Christian Linder also reiterated his position. “Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we have been in an energy war. That is no reason to permanently return to nuclear energy, but in the short term everything that creates capacity must be connected to the grid,” wrote Lindner on Twitter.
According to his own statements, he was reacting to the fact that a video with statements from January was increasingly being shared on the Internet. At that time and before Russia attacked Ukraine, he justified his rejection of nuclear power in a speech.
