Tuesday, October 19, 2021
“It was not enforceable”
Kretschmann coped with the failure of the speed limit
The heart project of the Greens, a speed limit, will apparently not exist. Prime Minister Kretschmann expected that. However, climate protection should not fail because of this. He is optimistic about moving forward in other ways.
Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann can, according to his own words, get over the end of a general speed limit on motorways when sounding out traffic lights. “It was not enforceable,” said the Green politician. He had expected that beforehand.
This decision would have made sense for many reasons, for example in preparation for autonomous driving, but it is of “less importance” in terms of carbon dioxide emissions, said Kretschmann. A coal-fired power plant emits as much climate-damaging carbon dioxide as 13.5 million vehicles in road traffic.
Cutbacks in exploratory talks
He does not consider the Greens to be weakened because of this issue in the negotiations. “Everyone has to give something in the explorations,” said Kretschmann, who had participated in the exploratory negotiations for the Greens. However, he considers the resistance to a speed limit to be irrational: “I have already said before that what the American’s weapon is, is the Germans the lawn”.
Since there is still resistance to the speed limit in politics, he no longer wants to devote himself to it. “I’m not the biggest believer in symbolism right now.” It is more important to make decisive progress on climate protection.
In the coalition negotiations with the SPD and FDP it is now a matter of “reaching compromises where everyone keeps their brand essence”. That succeeded in the explorations. “Of course you also have to let go of something,” said Kretschmann. The FDP had prevented a general speed limit of 130 kilometers per hour on motorways.