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Pressure grows on Germany to introduce tougher speed limits

A petition calling for stricter speed limits and car-free Sundays will be put to the German parliament.

Published: 26 April 2022 17:03 CEST

People drive on the Autobahn near Berlin. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Monika Skolimowska

Around 60,000 people in Germany signed the petition which laid out a number of measures aimed at reducing energy consumption in the face of Russia’s devastating war on Ukraine, as well as protecting the climate.

Supporters are calling on the German government to implement tougher speed limits – including on the Autobahn which famously does not have a speed limit in some places.

They want to see a speed limit of 100 kilometres per hour (km/h) on the Autobahn network, 30 km/h in towns and cities and 80 km/h on country roads.

There are also calls for car-free Sundays, a ban on domestic flights and an end to subsidies for plug-in hybrid vehicles. Supporters of the petition are also calling for more pop-up cycle paths and public transport to be be free of charge for three months.

“The measures contribute quickly, mostly with little effort – and effectively – to reduce energy dependency on Russia by reducing fuel consumption,” says the petition.

The petition gathered more than 50,000 signatures before the Monday deadline so it will be reviewed by the Bundestag’s Petitions Committee.

Campaigner Tino Pfaff, who introduced the motion with mobility expert Katja Diehl, said the measures would help save 30 million tonnes of CO2. Converted to fuel, this would mean savings of 13.4 million tonnes, said Pfaff, referring to calculations by Greenpeace.

Pfaff said he didn’t think all of the changes would be introduced, but he hopes the petition will make German MPs debate and consider the issues.

“I expect the debate to intensify and that the pressure on the government will increase,” he said.

‘Symbolic policy’

Germany’s Green party, which is in a coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Free Democrats (FDP) has pushed for a 130km/h speed limit on the Autobahn.

But the FDP has stood firm on its rejection of a Tempolimit. Keeping Germany’s highways speed limit-free was even one of the party’s dealbreakers when entering into the coalition with the SPD and Greens last year.

Yet pressure has been growing for Germany to do more to cut ties as much as possible with Russian President Vladimir Putin by moving away from Russian gas.

Pfaff said the onus is now on the Greens in particular. “The Greens have a duty to stand up to the FDP. As an ecological party, they don’t have to defend liberal ideologies,” he said.

Climate activist Luisa Neubauer, who also promoted the petition, said she she finds it “absurd” that a petition is needed. “It’s climate crisis, it’s war and we have to persuade the government with all our might by all means even to (impose) minimal measures like a speed limit,” she said.

But FDP transport policy spokesman Bernd Reuther told the Tagesspiegel that there would be be no change in the liberal party’s stance. “This symbolic policy does not help us and misses the actual goal,” he said. “Therefore, the FDP rejects these demands.”

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Thousands of jobs have already been lost in the region, where wind farms now rise near abandoned open-pit mines and many people look with dread towards 2038, the deadline for the “coal exit”.

Their fears help explain the strong local support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which does not just rail against migrants but also rejects the green energy push and questions man-made climate change.

At local elections held in Spremberg in June, the AfD scored 39.3 percent – an omen ahead of regional elections next Sunday in the state of Brandenburg, which polls suggest it could win.

Lignite, or brown coal, may be a climate killer, but since the 19th century it has been key to the identity of the Lusatia industrial region on the Polish border, known as the Lausitz in German.

“Thousands of people here have been linked to coal their whole working lives,” said the town’s mayor, Christine Herntier, an independent who has held the post for a decade.

“We are proud of our tradition,” said Herntier, 67, pointing to a huge map on her office wall of the Schwarze Pumpe plant and its surrounding industrial complex.

Most people in Spremberg, population 25,000, have grudgingly accepted the coal phase-out plan, under which the government has earmarked billions for structural transition plans, she said.

But, she added, ahead of the state election the winding down of coal “is still a big issue”.

‘Anger over wind farm’

Michael Hanko, the AfD’s top representative in Spremberg, said he is certain that the looming demise of the lignite industry is “one of the main reasons” residents are voting for his party.

“I don’t think the government has really got them on board with this whole prescribed transformation, saying that we now have to do everything with renewable energies,” Hanko said.

Michael Hanko, the AfD (Alternative for Germany) top candidate, in Spremberg, eastern Germany on, September 9, 2024. Photo by Femke COLBORNE / AFP

The AfD, founded about a decade ago, scored a triumph earlier this month when it won an election in the eastern state of Thuringia and came a close second in Saxony.

It now also has a good chance of winning in Brandenburg, the state that surrounds Berlin, where it is polling narrowly in first place at around 27 percent.

When the German government decided five years ago to phase out coal, it pledged around €40 billion to help coal regions adapt, with €17 billion for the Lausitz alone.

Much of the money is intended to flow into developing the renewables and hydrogen sectors, helping the region maintain its identity as an energy hub.

But residents complain the investment has been too slow to materialise and is flowing into the wrong places.

In Spremberg, plans to extend a nearby wind park have caused outrage among some locals, who fear it will be a threat to 150-year-old trees, a protected swallow species and drinking water.

‘Something different’

Coal has long been synonymous with the Lausitz region, which takes in parts of Brandenburg and Saxony and a small strip of Poland, and where lignite was discovered in the late 18th century.

But the industry all but collapsed after German reunification in 1990, when most of the region’s open pit mines were shut down and thousands of jobs vanished.

Today, only around 8,000 people are employed in the lignite industry across the Lausitz, with 4,500 of them in Brandenburg, though the industry is still one of the largest private employers in the state and coal remains a strong part of the region’s identity.

Already weary from the problems caused by reunification, people in the region have felt “overwhelmed” by recent global challenges, said Lars Katzmarek, a board member of the Pro-Lausitz campaign group.

Lars Katzmarek, board member of the Pro-Lausitz campaign group. Photo by Femke COLBORNE / AFP

“The coronavirus, the energy crisis, the Ukraine war – these are all very difficult things that people still haven’t fully digested… and perhaps at some point they just close their ears,” he said.

On a rainy morning in Spremberg, Joachim Paschke, 81, who used to work in mechanical engineering and welding, was buying bread rolls in the bakery opposite the town hall.

“I’m definitely not an AfD supporter but I can understand people who are,” he said.

“The established parties have nothing concrete and the AfD is offering something different. People want change.”

By Femke COLBORNE