Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

POLITICS

Merkel calls for slower nuclear phase-out

Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a contentious call on Sunday to slow Germany's planned phase-out of nuclear energy, amid growing fears it will be impossible to slash greenhouse gas emissions without it.

Published: 13 July 2008 13:34 CEST
Merkel calls for slower nuclear phase-out
File photo of the RWE nuclear power plant in Hesse. Photo: DPA

Germany plans to mothball the last of its 17 nuclear power plants, which emit no carbon dioxide and produce a quarter of the country’s electricity, by 2020 under a plan approved under Merkel’s predecessor Gerhard Schroeder.

But soaring energy costs and pressure to slash CO2 pollution have led conservatives like Merkel to call for a rethink against fierce opposition from their coalition partners, the Social Democrats.

“I will work to ensure the operation of our safe nuclear power plants in Germany is extended,” she told Sunday’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

“I do not believe that we can solve the problem of climate change with atomic energy alone… But we will not be able to ensure our supply for the foreseeable future in a way that protects the climate without atomic energy.”

Merkel, a former environment minister, said Germany would have to tackle the issue “at the latest” after the next general election in late 2009.

The leader of the Bavarian sister party of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, Erwin Huber, went further, saying that if the conservatives won next year, they would reverse the plans to outlaw nuclear power.

He added he would not rule out Germany building new reactors as is planned in Britain.

Merkel championed climate protection during the German presidencies of the European Union and the Group of Eight richest nations last year.

She told the Bild am Sonntag that the world’s most industrialized countries now needed to chart a course away from greenhouse gas-producing fossil fuels and focus on diversifying their energy supply.

EU nations last year agreed to a target of cutting the bloc’s overall greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 percent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels.

And at last week’s G8 summit in Japan, members agreed to at least halve global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Germany’s Social Democrats have vowed to block any attempt to roll back the plans to phase-out nuclear power.

And the opposition Greens, who led the charge under the previous government to stop atomic energy, have vowed to launch a nationwide grassroots campaign against extending the operation of nuclear reactors.

“We will expose the presentation of atomic power as a supposed cure-all as a cheap ploy,” Greens parliamentary group leader Renate Kuenast said.

Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, a Social Democrat, said the party looked forward to harnessing the issue in next year’s electoral race and accused the conservatives of courting the energy sector.

“Let us run (the campaign) on the question: do we want more energy efficiency and a change toward renewable energy or do we want €50 billion to €60 billion ($79 billion to $95 billion) in additional profits from extending the operation of old power plants to fall into the hands of the four main energy groups?” he told Saturday’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Polls show most Germans oppose nuclear power, but skyrocketing energy costs have sparked the calls to reconsider the phase-out.

Some conservative leaders have proposed using the potential surplus from allowing Germany’s power plants to continue operation to lower energy bills – a suggestion polls published at the weekend showed is gaining some support.

For members

POLITICS

ANALYSIS: What’s at stake in Germany’s eastern state elections?

After success in Thuringia and Saxony, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) may well come in first in another eastern state election this Sunday. We spoke with a political scientist to analyse what's at stake as Brandenburg goes to the polls.

Published: 19 September 2024 09:11 CEST
ANALYSIS: What's at stake in Germany's eastern state elections?

German politics’ “eastern September” is set to finally end Sunday – with more ruminations and reflections likely to come about the recent fortunes of the far-right AfD at the ballot box.

If current polls are anything to go by, the AfD could come in first in the eastern state encircling Berlin – which counts Potsdam as its capital.

After overtaking the governing Social Democrats (SPD) in a recent shock poll, the party is currently at around 28 percent, compared to the SPD on 25 percent. The centre-right Christian Democrats come in at 16 percent in the latest poll and the left-populist Sarah Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) – named after its founder – charts in at 14 percent.

The remaining parties come in much lower – with the Greens, Left and liberal Free Democrats all facing possible ejection from the state parliament.

Another victory for the AfD – or even a strong showing should the SPD still manage a narrow surprise win – will certainly boost the far-right’s confidence, after it came in first in Thuringia and second in Saxony earlier this month, following state elections that saw all three of Germany’s federally governing parties take massive losses.

Thuringia and Saxony results will likely hang over Brandenburg on Sunday – with Germany’s governing parties, many everyday Germans, and foreigners all watching with some trepidation. Here’s what to watch out for following the Brandenburg result.

READ ALSO: ‘Political earthquake’ – What the far-right AfD state election win means for Germany 

A newly confident AfD insists it must be part of government

The AfD has repeatedly argued that it must be considered as a possible coalition partner to join German governments – whether at the federal, state, or local level. 

“There are no politics without the AfD,” its co-leader Tino Chrupalla said following the Thuringia results. However, all other parties have explicitly refused to work with the AfD to form a governing coalition – meaning that as high as its results this month have been, they fall well short of the absolute majority that would be required to govern alone.

READ ALSO: ‘We need change’: Germany’s far-right eyes power after state election win

However, its getting more difficult to form coalitions to keep the AfD out, with the centre-right CDU in Thuringia even open to governing with the leftwing populist BSW after mainstream parties like the Greens and FDP were thrown out of state parliament entirely.

University of Mainz political scientist Kai Arzheimer, who specialises in the German far-right, says whether the far-right ever get into a German government or not depends mostly on whether – and how – the CDU is willing to work with the AfD.

Thuringia election results on a screen

People watch the first exit polls results for Thuringia’s state elections come in at the State Parliament in Erfurt on September 1st, 2024. Photo by Joerg CARSTENSEN / AFP

“For the time being, it should be able to form coalitions against the AfD, even if they are rather awkward,” says Arzheimer, who adds that even the different regional chapters of the CDU may have different opinions about working with the AfD.

“Within the eastern state parties of both the CDU and the FDP, there seems to be some appetite for coming to an arrangement with the AfD. While a formal coalition would probably split either party, we have already seen some tentative moves towards an informal cooperation.”

Ultimately, the Brandmauer or “firewall” concept in German politics – in which all other parties refuse to work with the AfD – may end up coming under increasing stress on the back of eastern state election results, where governing with the far-right no longer becomes unthinkable.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: Could the far-right AfD ever take power in Germany?

What the mainstream parties take from eastern election results

It’s probably no coincidence that Germany’s ruling government decided to re-institute border controls at its land borders with other EU states shortly after the AfD topped the Thuringia state poll, according to Arzheimer, who says the elections are just the latest in a number of things at work when if comes to Germany’s migration debate.

“The border controls, the plans for the stricter enforcement of repatriation orders, and most of all the government’s harsher rhetoric are as much a reaction to Saxony and Thuringia as they are an attempt to control the fallout from the Solingen knife attack and a response to the whole ‘debate’ on immigration,” he says.

“Many experts seem to agree that they are neither practical nor that useful, and introducing them more or less overnight smacks of a degree of panic.”

READ ALSO: Should foreign residents in Germany be concerned about far-right AfD win?

Polls conducted following the election found that migration and internal security issues were big drivers of the AfD vote – despite these being issues for the national, rather than regional, government. 

Of the AfD voters in Thuringia, more than 70 percent said either migration or crime and internal security played the largest role in influencing their vote. Slightly less than ten percent said social security. Despite the AfD’s pro-Russian views, only three percent of AfD voters in Thuringia said Germany’s support of Ukraine decisively influenced their votes.

Besides the mainstream parties like the SPD reacting with spur-of-the-moment migration policies, the Brandenburg result may end up putting pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz from within his own SPD.

Brandenburg SPD’s Dietmar Woidke may still be able to hold onto the premiership, but he has said he will resign if he doesn’t beat the AfD outright. Should he lose, calls may grow louder within the SPD for Scholz to resign himself – or at least declare that he won’t stand as a chancellor candidate again.

READ ALSO: How an explosive row over immigration has divided Germany

SHOW COMMENTS