Two days after Olaf Scholz’s announcement in the nuclear dispute, one thing is clear: both the Greens and the FDP were not surprised by the Chancellor’s decision to continue operating the nuclear power plant. Finance Minister Lindner does not want to know anything about a trust problem within the traffic light.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has taken the head of the traffic light coalition into his confidence before his word of power in the nuclear dispute. FDP leader and Federal Minister of Finance Christian Lindner did not want to comment on the exact procedure of the information in the ARD program “Maischberger”. When pointed out that he couldn’t have been surprised by his quick reaction, Lindner said: “Neither did Robert Habeck.”
On Monday, Scholz used his authority to issue guidelines and instructed the responsible ministers to make legislative proposals so that the Isar 2, Neckarwestheim 2 and Emsland nuclear power plants could continue to operate until April 15, 2023. Actually, the three nuclear power plants should have gone off the grid on December 31 of this year. “You have to assume that the chancellor doesn’t write a letter to his vice chancellor, to the finance minister, and they will be surprised by the content,” said Lindner. “If that were the case, the coalition would have a trust problem. But it isn’t.”
But if he and the FDP had been able to decide on their own, “then we would at least have put out new fuel rods and had them in reserve,” said Lindner. “If we needed them next winter, we would set them up and use them. If we didn’t need them next winter, we’d sell them on the world market and be glad we didn’t need them.”
Lindner said he was “in favor of an ideology-free energy policy”. This now also includes looking at domestic oil and gas deposits in the North Sea and gas deposits that exist on land. “The so-called fracking. It’s responsible, it’s very deep, there are no earthquakes, the drinking water is not endangered. So you can tackle that, you also make a contribution.”
