In his own words, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) does not feel provoked by the FDP’s call for a halt to the dismantling of nuclear power plants and considers the issue to be settled.
In the Deutschlandfunk “Interview of the Week” he denied the question of whether the demand was a personal provocation by the coalition partner against him after the cabinet’s agreement to work more quietly a few days ago. “Nuclear power is over. It is no longer used in Germany. It has been phased out by law. Nuclear power is a dead horse in Germany,” he continued. “I don’t need to speak a word of authority.”
Funding proposal is missing
The FDP made its move against the background of the continued high electricity costs, which are a burden on the economy and especially on energy-intensive industry. The SPD parliamentary group and the Greens are therefore calling for a state-reduced price for industrial electricity – the FDP is against it, Scholz has been skeptical so far. On Deutschlandfunk, the chancellor demanded a financing proposal: “It must of course be part of every discussion if you put billions somewhere where you can take them away,” he said.
“We have to ensure that Germany has structurally inexpensive energy production. We are doing this by expanding renewable energies, even at a pace that has not been the case before. Incidentally, we are also doing this by building a hydrogen network, where in this and The necessary decisions will be made early next year,” declared the Chancellor.
