Because Finance Minister Lindner and Energy Minister Habeck cannot agree on the continued operation of the German nuclear power plants, the Chancellor has put his foot down: all three nuclear power plants will remain on the grid until April 2023, Scholz announced. It's a classic compromise.
The remaining three German nuclear power plants should be able to continue running until April 15, 2023 at the latest. Chancellor Olaf Scholz decided that, as a government spokesman announced in Berlin in the evening. The chancellor's word of power had become necessary because no agreement had been reached by early evening in the dispute within the government about the continued operation of the German nuclear power plants. "The legal basis will be created to enable the power operation of the Isar 2, Neckarwestheim 2 and Emsland nuclear power plants beyond December 31, 2022 until April 15, 2023 at the latest," says Scholz's letter to Economics Minister Robert Habeck, Minister for the Environment Steffi Lemke, both from the Greens, and Finance Minister Christian Lindner from the FDP.
The FDP leader welcomed the Chancellor's decision. "It is in the vital interest of our country and its economy that we maintain all energy production capacities this winter. The Chancellor has now created clarity," said Lindner. The further use of the Emsland nuclear power plant is "an important contribution to grid stability, electricity costs and climate protection". Lindner: "The proposal therefore has the full support of the Free Democrats. We can create the legal basis together immediately. We will also work out viable solutions together for the winter of 2023/2024. After today's decision, people can rely on that." Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann also welcomed Scholz's decision. "Reason prevails," wrote the FDP politician on Twitter. "That strengthens our country. Because it ensures more grid stability and lower electricity prices."
Scholz discussed this with the two ministers for the third time on Sunday afternoon. As in the previous consultations, no results were announced afterwards. At the core of the dispute, which came to a head last week, are fundamentally different views on the further use of nuclear power - also against the background of the current energy crisis. The Greens want to keep the two southern German nuclear power plants Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim 2 in reserve until April 15 and continue to use them to generate electricity if necessary. The third remaining Emsland nuclear power plant, on the other hand, is to be finally shut down on January 1, 2023. This line was confirmed at the Green party conference in Bonn over the weekend. The delegates rejected the purchase of new fuel rods for longer operation.
In view of the sharp rise in energy prices, the FDP, on the other hand, is demanding that all three power plants continue to operate until 2024 and, if necessary, that nuclear power plants that have already been shut down be reactivated. A government spokeswoman reiterated that the coalition is on the way to an agreement. This should be submitted as soon as possible. Chancellor Scholz is very confident that this will happen "shortly".
Shortly before the chancellor's vote, FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr had called for the Greens to move again in the dispute over the temporary continued operation of the Emsland nuclear power plant. "We shouldn't do without the nuclear power plant in Lower Saxony. My great concern is that the gas-fired power plant will have to be used, which is only a few hundred meters from the Emsland nuclear power plant," Dürr said in Berlin in the afternoon. If the nuclear reactor is switched off, the gas-fired power plant has to generate electricity under full load in order to compensate for the missing amount.
"It would even be conceivable that oil ships in the North Sea would have to replace the electricity from the nuclear power plant. It would be absurd to rely on climate-damaging options or to waste scarce gas, even though we could have CO2-neutral nuclear power," said Dürr. It is "in all of our interests that the nuclear power plant in Lower Saxony is operated beyond December". He appealed to all those involved to jump over their shadows in the interests of security of supply. In the traffic light coalition, there is a largely deadlocked dispute over the nuclear power plants.
