By Nadja Aswad
Before the cabinet meeting, the traffic light coalition partners argued like tinkers – now the pressure must be released.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the members of the government will meet at Schloss Meseberg in Brandenburg, 70 km north of Berlin. In the guest house of the federal government in a rural idyll, topics include energy supply, digitization and vocational training as well as a “national security strategy” that is currently being developed against the background of the Ukraine war.
It threatens: the big traffic light Zoff! Cracks within the coalition had already come to light beforehand.
︎ At the center of criticism from the SPD and FDP: Federal Minister of Economics and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (52, Greens).
The comrades distributed because of the controversial gas levy in the direction of Habeck.
Dirk Wiese (39), Vice of the SPD parliamentary group, etched in BILD am SONNTAG: “The Habeck principle works like this: appearances ready for film, technical implementation questionable and in the end the citizen pays for it.” SPD leader Lars Klingbeil (44) threw Habeck in the “Zeit” “technical errors”: “In the end, it’s not just beautiful words that count in politics, above all the substance has to be right.”
Ouch.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (64, SPD) has to calm things down in Meseberg – and keep the traffic light coalition together Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa Pool | Kay Nietfeld
Grüner goes for Chancellor
But the Greens didn’t need to be asked for long either: On Sunday evening, Konstantin von Notz (51), Vice-President of the Greens parliamentary group, shot back at the comrades on Twitter: “The Chancellor’s poor performance, his lousy poll numbers, memory gaps at #Warburg and his responsibilities at #Northstream2 will not be healed by disloyalty and resentment in the koa,” von Notz posted while “Tatort” was still running.
FDP-Lindner puts his finger in the Greens’ AK wound
On Monday, Federal Minister of Finance Christian Lindner (43, FDP), quite conscious of the broadcast, spoke up. He put his finger in the Greens’ nuclear wound and spoke out again in favor of longer running times for the remaining German nuclear reactors. “Some of our cities will be darker because we have to save electricity. But in such a situation, do we forego safe and climate-friendly options for generating electricity, such as nuclear energy? That doesn’t convince me,” Lindner told the WELT television station.
With a view to an ongoing stress test of the German power supply, Lindner said he was pretty sure that there would be a lot to be said for the continued operation of the nuclear power plants. He would always try “to secure everything we have in reserve capacity in this situation”. It needs a mix of liquid natural gas, gas production in Europe, coal – and also nuclear power. “My advice to us: don’t be too picky, but do everything possible to avert an energy crisis in our country.”
Germany
The AKWende – a red rag for the Greens.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (41, Greens) had emphasized in BILD am SONNTAG at the weekend that she was “not convinced that nuclear power plants will solve our gas problem.” To overturn the exit again “would be insane and would cost us even more”.
Chancellor Scholz has also invited Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (50) as a guest to the cabinet retreat. In mid-August, at his first summer press conference, Scholz surprisingly brought an energy project that was unknown to many back into play in the fight against dependence on Russian gas:
The chancellor wants the Portugal pipeline!
The “Midi-Catalonia Pipeline” (“MidCat” project for short), a pipeline from Spain to southern France, was put on hold in 2019. Too expensive, too uneconomical – the Sánchez government had also pushed for it. But now everything is different. At his summer press conference, Scholz admitted that he had already held talks about the project and explained: “I have been very busy with a pipeline that we are all unfortunately missing dramatically today. Namely the pipeline that should have been built between Portugal, Spain, through France to Central Europe,” said the Chancellor.
Because the pipeline would make “a massive contribution to relieving and easing the supply situation”, he “with the two colleagues in Spain and Portugal, but also in discussions with the French President and the President of the EU Commission, campaigned very much for us to have such a tackle the project,” explained Scholz.
Sánchez and Scholz want to appear together in front of the press on Tuesday afternoon (12.45 p.m.).
An old acquaintance is also expected: Ex-SPD leader Andrea Nahles (52) is celebrating her comeback in the cabinet, but in a new role as head of the Federal Employment Agency.