Leuna (dpa/sa) – Saxony-Anhalt’s Energy Minister Armin Willingmann (SPD) has spoken out in favor of introducing an excess profit tax. “The excess profit tax is possible,” he said on Saturday at a state party conference of the Social Democrats in Leuna. “There must be no rip-off in the crisis.” An excess profit tax is intended to siphon off additional profits from companies, and this was recently discussed with a view to mineral oil companies, among other things. In addition, the minister called for further relief for citizens by the federal government.
Willingmann was re-elected as deputy SPD state chairman on Friday, receiving around 92 percent of the votes. In his speech on Saturday, he defended the environmental and energy policy course of the social democrats within the black, red and yellow state government. “We are at the center of future issues.” Willingmann again promoted the renewal of old wind turbines and the examination of whether wind turbines can also be erected in forest areas. There should be no bans on thinking in energy policy.
Willingmann rejects a longer use of nuclear power. For the time being, however, there is no way around coal-fired power plants, it is about security of supply.
