“Harms our prosperity”
CDU and CSU launch campaign against combustion engine phase-out
24.05.2024, 13:41
As a component of the EU climate strategy, the combustion engine is to be banned from 2035 – a project in which Commission President von der Leyen was also significantly involved. Shortly before the European elections, the German Union parties are finally changing their minds on this issue.
A good two weeks before the European elections, the CDU and CSU have launched a voting campaign against the planned ban on new cars with combustion engines from 2035. Since Friday, citizens have been able to cast their votes on the websites of the two Union parties – under the motto “Yes to the car – No to the combustion engine ban”. The EU ban on combustion engines from 2035, which was decided by the European Parliament, must be withdrawn, the appeal states.
CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann justified the campaign with what he considered to be the risky economic consequences of such a ban. “The end of combustion engines is damaging prosperity in our country,” he told the “Bild” newspaper. “It is sawing off the branch we are sitting on.” The “most efficient engines in the world” are manufactured in Germany. Climate neutrality can only be achieved with technological openness.
CSU General Secretary Martin Huber expressed similar views. “The blanket ban on combustion engines from 2035 is wrong,” Huber told the “Bild” newspaper. Climate protection requires technological openness rather than bans. “The combustion engine is the basis of our prosperity in Germany. It would be madness to simply ban this technology.”
According to current plans, new cars with combustion engines will no longer be allowed to be registered in the EU from 2035 – unless the combustion engines are CO2-neutral. The planned ban is intended to help the EU achieve its climate protection goals.
The Union’s campaign is politically sensitive because EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had pushed for the phase-out of combustion engines by 2035. Von der Leyen is the EU lead candidate of the European People’s Party (EPP), which also includes the CDU and CSU.