“Green anti-nuclear ideology”
Union wants committee to investigate nuclear decisions
04.06.2024, 19:05
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The Union wants to set up a committee of inquiry into how the traffic light government came to its decision on nuclear power in 2022. It complains that national energy security was achieved “exclusively according to the logic of green party politics”. The responsible ministers Habeck and Lemke are deliberately calm.
The Bundestag will most likely set up a committee of inquiry to examine how the traffic light government came to the decision to extend the operating life of nuclear power plants two years ago. According to information from participants, the Union faction initiated the establishment of such a Bundestag committee with a corresponding motion in the afternoon. The votes of the largest opposition faction in parliament are sufficient for this.
The conclusion is that the federal government has not decided for the good of Germany “in a crucial question of our national energy security” but “only according to the logic of green party politics,” said a letter to the Union parliamentarians from Union parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz and CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt. Promised documents for clarification were “sent incompletely at best.”
Merz stressed that he assumes that the committee could be set up as early as next week. It could then begin work before the summer break. It must be clarified whether the decision was “really based on an unbiased review” or whether it was a party-political decision “that only had to be supported by superficial arguments from the respective authorities”. This applies to the ministries, the downstream authorities and also the Chancellery.
According to Article 44 of the Basic Law, at least a quarter of the members of the Bundestag are required to set up a committee of inquiry. With 733 members, this means that at least 184 parliamentarians must vote for the committee. The Union faction, as the largest opposition force in the Bundestag, can therefore convene such a committee with its 195 members on its own.
Internal concerns in the ministries were suppressed
Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck and Environment Minister Steffi Lemke came under pressure following a report in the magazine “Cicero” according to which internal concerns about the nuclear phase-out, which was still planned for the following year, were suppressed in both the Ministry of Economics and the Ministry of Environment in spring 2022. The magazine reported that “networks of the Greens” had “manipulated” the decision to extend the operating life of German nuclear power plants. According to the report, tips from experts did not reach Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck. Both ministries deny this.
The three nuclear power plants that were still on the grid in Germany were actually supposed to be shut down at the end of 2022. This was heavily criticized by the Union. But when Germany’s most important gas supplier, Russia, attacked Ukraine in February 2022, this triggered considerations about securing energy supplies. When gas deliveries from Russia were initially throttled and later stopped, the federal government decided to extend the operating times of the three power plants until mid-April 2023.
Greens remain calm
Environment Minister Lemke is relaxed about the Union faction’s plans. “It is of course the opposition’s right to set up such a committee of inquiry,” she said on Deutschlandfunk. However, the decision made in 2022 to keep the three remaining nuclear power plants on the grid for only three and a half months longer was “transparent and publicly comprehensible” from the start. The government has “repeatedly examined the matter with an open mind.”
More than 600 documents relating to decisions made at the time were sent to parliament. “All the facts have long been on the table. The Union faction rejected multiple offers to cover any additional information needs in further discussions,” criticized a spokesman for the Federal Environment Ministry. Habeck also emphasized the opposition’s right to a committee of inquiry. “I look forward to this with great composure.” The ministry has released all the requested documents.
Habeck and Lemke had already rejected the criticism in April. “We have actively explored all options, including an extension of the operating period,” said Habeck at the time in a special session of the Bundestag’s Energy Committee. The evaluations and assessments were “at all times geared towards the nuclear safety of our country,” emphasized Lemke.
“Nobody understands what the Union wants”
Green parliamentary group leader Katharina Dröge also appeared relaxed. The establishment of a committee of inquiry was indeed “the good minority right” of the Union. However, the Union has not yet made it clear “what it actually wants to clarify”. “So far, it is not clear to me what the object of clarification is,” said Dröge. In 2022, hardly any question has been discussed as widely in public as the question of the operating times of the power plants. In the end, politics is there to make decisions.
SPD parliamentary group vice-chair Matthias Miersch explained that the committee “would be a good opportunity to clarify the Union’s divided relationship with nuclear power: nuclear phase-out, then re-entry, then phase-out, now re-entry – now even the construction of new nuclear reactors?” No one can see what the Union wants in terms of energy policy. “Instead of beating a dead horse, we are betting on renewables,” he said.
Dobrindt: Allegation of deception is in the air
CSU regional group leader Dobrindt said: “It is not about making an accusation against the Greens’ anti-nuclear ideology, but rather it is clearly about the accusation of possible deception.” The Union has tried several times to create clarity and asked for transparency. “This has not been granted by the traffic light coalition either to the public or to parliament.”
Germany finally completed its nuclear phase-out on April 15, 2023, and shut down the last three reactors. The power plants were originally supposed to be taken off the grid at the turn of the year, but operations were extended to secure the electricity supply.
The Greens had long resisted such a step, but then supported the concept of a temporary operational reserve for two of the last three German nuclear power plants presented by Habeck and the nuclear power plant operators in September 2022. The FDP was fundamentally in favor of a longer term. In October 2022, Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke out in favor of the continued operation of all three reactors until spring 2023.