Noise in the traffic light coalition
Klingbeil defends Scholz – and contradicts him
8/20/2023, 8:01 p.m
Some social democrats are in favor of an industrial electricity price. Party leader Klingbeil is one of them. With this position, he opposes the Chancellor, who rejects such subsidies. As far as government work is concerned, he strengthens Scholz’s back.
SPD party leader Lars Klingbeil has criticized the quarrels within the traffic light coalition and at the same time rejected criticism of Chancellor Olaf Scholz. It will be “publicly measured all the time, who is the winner, who is the loser, who has gains in millimeters or meters,” said Klingbeil in the summer interview with ZDF. “No one cares. We have to solve the things that are currently on the table,” said Klingbeil.
“There will always be decisions where you might have more sympathy with one or the other, but that’s not what the coalition is about,” the party leader continued. “We must work silently to ensure that the country moves forward.”
Klingbeil called on the federal government to quickly agree on tax relief for companies and basic child security. “I expect this to be implemented very quickly in government,” he said. All cabinet members would have to pull themselves together. The traffic light government had already unsettled people during the debate on the heating law. He could not understand why last Wednesday the cabinet could not pass Finance Minister Christian Lindner’s so-called Growth Opportunities Act. Federal Family Minister Lisa Paus had blocked this in order to push through higher sums for basic child security.
Scholz can’t keep “banging on the table”
Klingbeil pointed out that there had previously been an agreement between Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Lindner and Economics Minister Robert Habeck. Scholz can’t keep “banging on the table and yelling”. A different style of government was adopted.
However, Klingbeil contradicted Scholz on one point. Like the Chancellor, he sees that energy prices are too high, said the SPD leader. But he supports the industrial electricity price, while the chancellor is skeptical and the FDP is against it. “I’m fighting for it to come. I’m firmly convinced that we need the industrial electricity price to strengthen the economy and keep jobs here and create new ones,” emphasized Klingbeil.
SPD wants to make a decision on the industrial electricity price
For days, leading SPD politicians have been drumming for Scholz to change his mind. Greens, trade unions and business are also demanding an industrial electricity price. The background is the enormous price difference in electricity prices, for example in the USA, but also in other European countries. The SPD parliamentary group wants to make a decision on an industrial electricity price at the end of the month. Klingbeil said he didn’t want any controversy with the chancellor, but as party leader he took a different position.
Scholz spoke out again on Wednesday evening against subsidies and warned of a “debt-financed flash in the pan”. “That would be economically wrong, fiscally unsound and would create the wrong incentives,” emphasized the Chancellor. He argued that if green power production and power grids were rapidly expanded, prices would fall rapidly.