The Social Democratic Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, ended, Monday, October 17, to a long confrontation between his green and liberal partners.
by
Olaf Scholz decided: the last three nuclear power plants still active in Germany will continue to operate until April 2023, decided the Social Democratic Chancellor (SPD), Monday, October 17, ending an exhausting test of force Between its green and liberal partners (FDP), politically deleterious for the image of its coalition.
According to the plan set by the government of Angela Merkel, after the Fukushima disaster in 2011, Germany was to leave nuclear permanently by the end of 2022. The war in Ukraine questioned this Calendar: Faced with the outbreak of energy prices and the risk of electricity shortage this winter, the Minister of the Economy, Robert Habeck (Greens), announced, on September 5, only two of the last three nuclear power plants Still in service would be “put in reserve” until April 2023. In other words, that they would cease to operate at the end of December, as planned, but that they could be requested if necessary for three and a half months.
Far from closing the debate, this announcement, on the contrary, attacked it. By extending the only centrals of Isar 2 (Bavaria) and Neckarwestheim (Baden-Wurtemberg), but not that of Emsland (Basse-Saxe), Robert Habeck had been accused of attaching to interest to interests by a few months. policies of his party only to the energy needs of his country. One month before the regional elections in Lower Saxony, he had escaped anyone only the only nuclear power plant which he intended to close in December was that located in this land. And that, in doing so, the former president of the Greens was especially anxious not to complicate the election campaign of his party.
“This is a decision which I can accommodate”
Retrospectively, the calculation was paying. In Basse-Saxe, on October 9, the Greens collected 14.5 % of the votes, an unprecedented score, which should allow them to participate in the regional executive alongside the SPD. For the FDP, in favor of an extension of nuclear power plants until 2024, this ballot was on the other hand a cold shower: with only 4.7 % of the votes, the Liberals did not reach the 5 % mark allowing them to sit in the regional parliament.
The results of these elections are essential to understand the decision taken on Monday by Olaf Scholz. By deciding to prolong until the spring of 2023 the three nuclear power plants still active, and not only two of them, as his ecological minister of the economy had promised, the Social Democratic Chancellor made a gesture towards Liberals, strongly determined to show, after their debacle in Basse-Saxe, that they retained an influence within the federal government.
You have 41.46% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.