Bundescancer Olaf Scholz (SPD) has spoken a word of power in the dispute over longer running times for the three German nuclear power plants (AKW). Accordingly, not only the two southern German nuclear power plants Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim 2, but also the Lower Saxony plant Emsland should be able to remain connected to the grid until April 15, 2023. In doing so, he is turning once morest his Green coalition partner, who at a party conference last weekend had advocated extending the service life only for the two southern German plants.
The FDP’s wish to have all three power plants running by 2024 is also not being fulfilled. In a letter to the Federal Ministers Steffi Lemke (Environment, Greens), Robert Habeck (Economy, Greens) and Christian Lindner (Finance, FDP), Scholz referred to Paragraph 1 of the Federal Government’s Rules of Procedure, which grants the Chancellor the authority to issue guidelines. The letter was subsequently published.
With this unusually clear approach, Scholz wants to settle the long-standing dispute between his two small coalition partners.
The FDP welcomed the Chancellor’s decision. The party leader and finance minister wrote on Twitter: “The further use of the Emsland nuclear power plant is an important contribution to grid stability, electricity costs and climate protection.” The proposal has the “full support of the Free Democrats”. Justice Minister Marko Buschmann (FDP) was also pleased with the decision. “Reason prevails,” he wrote on Twitter. The FDP had previously advertised that the Isar 2 power plant should run until the beginning of 2024.
In the letter, Scholz writes that the political understanding between the federal government, the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia and the energy company RWE on extending the operation of coal-fired power plants until 2024 and on the “early phase-out of coal by 2030” in the Rhenish Revier will be “implemented by legislation”.
Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) criticized Scholz’s nuclear power plant decision as insufficient and disappointing. “Is that all? What a disappointment,” Söder wrote on Twitter. The problem is only adjourned. “This is a solution to the traffic light dispute, but not for the electricity problem in Germany,” argued Söder and warned: “The danger of a blackout in the coming year remains.”
