After seemingly endless negotiations, the traffic light partners finally come to an agreement. The result should please the FDP in particular. She prevails on important points. The Greens get some consolation for this. But this tour de force is not a new departure.
“Finally,” many thought on Tuesday evening when the traffic light representatives reported completion. The negotiations, which had been ongoing since Sunday evening, were over and a 16-page paper was now on the table. In doing so, the government is clearing up a number of controversial issues and is also securing its existence. But maybe the pain is now moving from one side to the other. The FDP can be congratulated because it has prevailed on important points. Many Greens, on the other hand, may have lain awake that night and asked themselves: Was it worth it?
In any case, it is telling when the German Environmental Aid speaks of a “disaster” and an “absolute catastrophe” and their last hope is the Union, of all things, which may save the current climate protection law from Angela Merkel’s last term in the Bundestag. The successes for the FDP are what catches the eye in this paper: there is the accelerated planning for almost 150 motorway projects – this had been argued for months. Then there is the promotion of e-fuels, which most environmental experts consider to be a dead end to making transport carbon-neutral. Then there is the Climate Protection Act, which is to be revised.
That sounds technical, but it is a momentous decision for climate protection. So far, all sectors, such as transport, buildings or industry, have had to achieve their own climate targets every year. That just made the transport minister look bad again. Because his area missed the target marks again. This will be over in the future – the climate targets only have to be achieved across sectors. If things are going particularly well elsewhere, deficits elsewhere, for example in transport, could be compensated for.
Not just a heat pump anymore
There is also something in the paper about the dispute over the ban on new gas heaters, but little concrete. The suspicion is that the group has made a cut here so that they don’t have to sit together for another day. The paper now says that “every new heating system should be operated with 65 percent renewable energies if possible” by the coming year. However, and this is a major innovation, attention should be paid to “technology openness”. So far, everything has come down to focusing on the electrically operated heat pump. From the FDP point of view, this means that instead of electricity, biomass and green hydrogen, as well as blue hydrogen obtained with the help of natural gas, can also be used. However, that is not in the 16-page paper, but in a communication from the party.
So is this a triumph for the FDP? On the one hand yes. She got a lot of what she wanted. In addition, she boasts that she has protected the commuter allowance or the company car privilege. It is also noticeable that there is nothing in the paper about basic child security, a heart project of the Greens. But it’s also not the case that the Greens didn’t get anything.
Let’s take the acceleration of planning infrastructure projects. Basically, as agreed in the coalition agreement, the expansion of the railways should be promoted more than the expansion of the motorways. In principle, rail routes can be planned more easily in the future and motorways cannot. But now comes a big but – because the FDP has negotiated a big exception. A “narrowly limited number of particularly important projects”, as the paper says, should also be planned and implemented more quickly in the future.
However, this “strictly limited number” is a very impressive list of 144 motorway sites that is available to ntv.de. The decisive factor is what comes out at the end – and in this sense the Liberals have gotten more out of this than was stated in the coalition agreement. It may be a good idea that solar systems are to be built on the motorways in the future. For the Greens, however, it is only a consolation, because probably nobody would have had a problem with it, so this step was not particularly controversial.
A toad named E-Fuels
It is similar with the car. The FDP is asserting itself by promoting e-fuels in the future – although many experts consider them inefficient and expensive because too much green electricity is used for production. If the Greens are right, e-fuels will not prevail. However, a lot of money would have been wasted on it. The fact that they cave in on this fundamental question should probably be compensated for with determined support for e-mobility, for example in the form of even more charging points and also e-support for trucks.
The Greens can claim as a success that Deutsche Bahn is to receive a total of 45 billion euros by 2027, partly financed by the truck toll. This is to receive a CO2 surcharge and be extended to all commercial vehicles from 3.5 tons. Craftsmen should be exempt. In the future, therefore, the road will finance the rail. A lot more is to be done on the subject of rail transport, for example in terms of digitization or the expansion of the Bahncard 100 to local public transport. A commitment to more cycle lanes can also be found in the section on traffic. The question arises as to whether the whole republic had to be held in suspense because of this. And the answer is: it had to go in so that the Greens had something to show for themselves in addition to the successes of the FDP.
This agreement is not a new beginning. More of a tour de force, a semi-face-saving compromise – and thus the minimum requirement for a functioning government. The traffic light is still breathing and proves that it can still come to an agreement. No more, no less.