2023-09-03 11:22:56
Posted Sep 3, 2023, 1:22 PM
In Berlin, Olaf Scholz signaled the end of the game. While the liberal parliamentary group had called on Thursday to stop the dismantling of the last three power stations, the German chancellor clearly spoke out against this idea.
“Nuclear energy is ‘a dead horse’ in Germany,” he said in a meeting on German public radio, in other words, it is a question that no longer makes sense.
“Nuclear energy is over. It is no longer used in Germany. His exit is enshrined in law, ”explained the leader.
With the disconnection of the network, the dismantling work began and “whoever wanted to build new nuclear power plants would need 15 years to do so and would have to spend 15 to 20 billion per unit”, added Olaf Scholz.
Keep an option
Eight days ago, the boss of the German right, Friedrich Merz had called for the maintenance of the three disconnected power stations in April, indicating that he would restart them, in the event of a return to power in 2025.
Allied with the Greens and the Social Democrats within the coalition, the Liberal MPs had also asked to keep the power stations as they are, in order to “keep at least this option” while energy prices are high.
“With the shutdown of the last three nuclear power plants, we have given up 30 terawatt hours of climate-neutral electricity per year”, declared the boss of the liberal deputies, Christian Dürr, to the daily “Tagesspiegel”.
A power plant cannot be steered like a bicycle
In fact, a nuclear power plant is not driven like a bicycle. Preparations for dismantling are already underway and a restart would require a complete overhaul, fuel rods and a majority in parliament to change the nuclear law.
On the political level, on the other hand, agitating this idea a few months before the elections in Bavaria and Hesse makes sense. This allows the Liberals to distinguish themselves from the other players in the coalition, while one of the three power stations is located in Bavaria and the polls are at their lowest for the three parties in power.
All this, even if it means consolidating a reputation as a perpetual mess, barely 24 hours after a seminar supposed to close ranks.
No electricity subsidies
In his interview with German radio, Olaf Scholz also came out of the woodwork on the idea of a subsidized price of electricity for electro-intensive industrialists. A question that divides the coalition (the Greens and SPD deputies are for and the Liberals against) as business leaders.
The Chancellor was very skeptical on this subject, judging that it is easier “to know to whom we should give money” than “to know where it should come from”.
Rather than subsidizing the price of electricity for certain industrialists by taxpayers, other industrialists or by debt, Olaf Scholz prefers “to ensure that Germany has structurally cheap energy production”, by developing renewable energies at a rate “which was not ours until now”.
A new “German tempo”
A reference to the “new German tempo”, implemented during the ultra-fast construction of several liquefied natural gas terminals to spend the winter of 2022-2023.
A rhythm still far from being general. According to the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, three-quarters of the new high voltage lines needed for the energy shift are still waiting for their permits.
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