Four days lie between Habeck’s announcement of the gas levy and its death by the red-yellow coalition partners. The Federal Minister of Economics is embarrassed and the next position pirouette of the Greens is already on the horizon. But the Gasumlage Theater also tells a lot about the condition of the traffic lights.
In the end, everything might turn out well for Robert Habeck. That is when his official cabinet colleague and not so unofficial opponent, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner, reveals the secret he announced to Anne Will on Sunday evening: how he still wants to pave the way for the gas price brake for companies and consumers. It doesn’t matter whether it will result in another exemption from the debt brake in 2023 or rather in a tricky circumvention as with the special fund for the Bundeswehr. The federal government must prevent a wave of bankruptcies and the destruction of millions of wealth. In the end, the Federal Minister of Economics will be judged primarily on the achievement of this goal.
Until then, Habeck is a mighty embarrassed on the Berlin stage. Two months ago, he announced the gas levy, which four weeks later turned out to be a bad design because it also gave companies that were doing well the opportunity to dust off. The Federal Ministry of Economics had to improve after a public outcry, not least from the ranks of the Federal Government. Only so that on Thursday Habeck could announce the introduction of an abuse-proof gas surcharge as of October 1, which he says he himself does not consider to be constitutional as soon as the state completes the takeover of the gas supplier Uniper. That should be the case at the turn of the year. Nevertheless, on the same day, Habeck vigorously defended the allocation, which is expected to be limited to three months, in the Bundestag against the criticism of the “must go opposition”, as the Greens called the Union.
But all the struggle was in vain because a “must-go coalition” formed in the traffic light over the weekend: from Lindner and his FDP to the SPD leadership and the ranks of the Greens. The gas levy has therefore been dead since Sunday evening. It may be introduced later this week. However, it is unlikely that it will actually be collected at the end of October. All the work in the Federal Ministry of Economics, which was already entrusted with a large number of key tasks, would then have been in vain. Not good resource management in view of the overload on his employees, which Habeck recently complained about. But even the minister himself would have fought in vain.
The bitter joke from Habeck’s point of view: If it had been up to him, the gas levy would never have been needed. If Lindner and the FDP had shown willingness from the outset to support gas suppliers and consumers with state funds, Habeck would not have had to call on consumers to save the energy companies. But now that the SPD and FDP, annoyed for months by the good survey results from Habeck and the Greens, have gotten off to a slender footing, the gas allocation disaster goes home alone with Habeck. It should haunt him for a long time. Especially since Habeck’s next volte is already in the offing: in nuclear power.
In the spring, Habeck was still adamant that the last three German nuclear power plants would go offline as planned at the end of the year. In the summer he agreed to review the necessity of these nuclear power plants as part of a second stress test. At the end of the summer, Habeck announced the idea of ??a reserve operation, which had not been discussed with the cabinet. Since last week it has been considered reasonably certain that the traffic light coalition will announce extended operation for at least the two nuclear power plants in southern Germany after the state elections in nuclear power-sensitive Lower Saxony. That could happen in October, just like the withdrawal of the gas surcharge. A deal is announced: Lindner is moving in government spending to enable a gas price cap. In return, the Greens are no longer clinging to the nuclear phase-out at the turn of the year.
Both could make sense, because the FDP and the Greens are thus signaling to voters that pragmatism and not party-political beliefs rule in the fight against the energy crisis – even if there are good reasons for both the debt brake and the fastest possible nuclear phase-out. But Habeck is in the worst possible light. Central announcements by the minister are not implemented in the end. Valuable time and capacities were invested in vain. The Federal Minister of Economics seems disoriented and overwhelmed. This narrative – invented by the Union, adopted by the SPD and FDP – is increasingly gaining traction among its own voters, while Habeck’s approval ratings and those of the Greens are falling.
The not exactly conservative “Heute Show” cut videos together on Friday in which Habeck is currently looking for words. The clip is a single stammer. Anyone who still laughs about language problems these days has their own problems, but the example shows: Habeck’s star is falling rapidly and that’s not just everyone else’s fault. In the nuclear debate, the former Green Party leader underestimated the symbolic power of Germany taking fully operational power plants off the grid without needing it in the midst of a European energy crisis. And instead of the complicated, counter-intuitive gas surcharge – which country is also increasing the gas price in these times? – to fight, he would have invested the energy better in a gas price cap. Even in the best-case scenario, this will not take effect before December. What has been lost in terms of prosperity and economic power by then will be blamed primarily on the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs. People in the SPD and FDP may be pleased about this, but the country is gradually losing its laughter.
