Compromise of the traffic light coalition
Habeck: Environmental groups “not mad at the Greens”
03/29/2023 11:34 p.m
Environmentalists are sounding the alarm because the government wants to soften the rules of the Federal Climate Protection Act. But the criticism does not apply to his party, says Federal Minister of Economics Habeck. Rather, he sees problems with the acceleration of planning, which could be slowed down.
Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck believes it is possible that the decision to accelerate planning will be slowed down by continuing the lengthy discussion process of the traffic light coalition at state level. “There is a risk, of course,” said the Greens politician on Wednesday evening in ZDF’s “Heute Journal”.
The background is that an overriding public interest in accelerated infrastructure planning should be established in agreement with the country concerned. “Of course, a lot of the implementation takes place at state or municipal level,” said Habeck. This applies to the motorway expansion originally rejected by the Greens as well as to nature and environmental protection, which is also a matter for the federal states.
From Habeck’s point of view, it is therefore important that the three traffic light parties have an appropriate effect on the lower levels. He hopes that “respect for what we actually have to deal with will also help us to advise or motivate our levels in such a way that we say: Ok, now forward, we have agreed, now we can do something else hope and expect and work towards making agreements happen.”
“I don’t know where the accusation is supposed to be”
The Greens were only able to push through a small part of their positions against the SPD and FDP. In his own words, Habeck does not believe that the critics of the compromise, for example in the environmental groups, see his party to blame. “In any case, they’re not mad at the Greens,” he said. “Isn’t it rather the case that one can perhaps even be almost proud that we have the power to get a government working again. Well, I don’t know where the accusation is supposed to be.”
Environmentalists had sharply criticized the results of the multi-day coalition committee. In particular, the planned softening of the Federal Climate Protection Act is a disaster, according to the German Environmental Aid (DUH). “This anti-climate protection coalition is seriously laying hands on the Federal Climate Protection Act. In doing so, it is sinning against all future generations,” explained DUH Federal Managing Director Jürgen Resch.
“In the transport sector, the horror news can hardly be counted, including a whopping 144 accelerated motorway construction projects and the planned de facto equal treatment of combustion engine cars with electric vehicles,” said Resch. He called on the members of the Bundestag to “roundly reject the planned deterioration of the already unambitious law from the Merkel era”.
“The climate will continue to be driven in front of the wall”
Greenpeace criticized similar points: “By giving up the obligation to implement each individual sector goal, Chancellor Scholz (…) is acknowledging that his party’s greatest climate policy success, the Climate Protection Act, will be gutted,” explained Martin Kaiser, Executive Vice President of Greenpeace Germany.
“With Transport Minister Wissing, this relieves the bottom of the league when it comes to climate protection. If 144 additional climate-damaging motorway projects are to be paved through the country at an accelerated rate, the climate will be further driven into the wall.” The “traffic light marathon” did “far too little” to climate protection, even throwing it back “at important points”.