FDP claim rejected
Scholz calls nuclear power a “dead horse”
9/2/2023 1:31 p.m
“Nuclear power is over,” Chancellor Scholz said. Under his direction, the dismantling of the nuclear power plants in Germany that are still operational is being continued. His coalition partner FDP is against it. Nevertheless, the head of government believes that a “word of power” is not necessary.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the FDP’s call for a halt to the decommissioning of nuclear power plants that have been shut down. “The issue of nuclear power is a dead horse in Germany,” Scholz said in Deutschlandfunk’s “Interview of the Week”. The Chancellor emphasized that the exit was legal. At its closed meeting on Friday, the FDP parliamentary group called for the dismantling of the three nuclear power plants that are still operational to be refrained from for the time being.
“Nuclear power is over. It is no longer used in Germany,” said Scholz. Whoever wanted to build new nuclear power plants would need 15 years and would have to spend 15 to 20 billion per unit. With a view to the attitude of the FDP, he said that he did not need to speak “a word of power” on the subject. “The facts are that when the use of nuclear power came to an end, mining began.”
Germany wants to “cover 80 percent of our needs by the end of the decade with the expansion of renewable energies, with an energy supply based on wind power, solar energy, hydropower, biomass, electricity supply and shortly afterwards even everything that is necessary,” said Scholz. “And that’s the path we’re on now.”
The Chancellor was confident that the climate in the traffic light coalition would improve, despite differences of opinion on some factual issues. “What is being hammered in the government could have been hammered more quietly or with a silencer, as I said, that’s right and I’m sure it’s good if everyone takes it to heart,” said he in the interview that is scheduled to air on Sunday.
“We have calibrated that precisely”
Regarding the latest demands from business associations and parts of the traffic light coalition for an industrial electricity price, the Chancellor said that clear language must be spoken here. In every discussion it must be said where the required billions should be taken away. “The fact that we get into a mode where a hundred billion debts a year are such a normal thing – I don’t think that would be a good idea,” said Scholz. There must be an understanding that such debt cannot become the norm. “But now we have to see that we can manage quite well with the money we still have,” he added.
At the same time, Scholz defended the resolutions of the federal government to promote and relieve the economy. The measures were not simply aimed at making someone pay less tax, but at stimulating investment activity. “We have calibrated that precisely,” said the Chancellor.
Settlements by international and German chip manufacturers punished all lies that now said that no investments were being made in Germany, emphasized Scholz. More favorable depreciation rules and opportunities to carry forward losses are “exactly the impetus that the economy needs at this point in time”. The Federal Cabinet passed the so-called Growth Opportunities Act on Wednesday. It provides relief for the economy with a volume of a good seven billion euros.