What Robert Habeck could and should have done long ago, he did now. Two of the three nuclear plants still in production will remain connected to the grid after December 31. This was not clear until now, and no one knew how the plants could be technically restarted during elaboration.
Nor did anyone know why a decision on temporary ongoing operation had to be delayed. Except, of course, that Habeck took into account the interests of the Federal Ministry for the Environment and Lower Saxony.
The FDP needs a trophy
Habeck justifies his move to the “stress test” results – because operators had recommended exactly what Habeck just announced – with the bottlenecks in France. This is not really convincing because the location of nuclear power plants has been known for a long time and has not changed on a large scale overnight.
But Habeck, when he says “France”, is perhaps also thinking of the FDP. Liberals have recently associated the end of the gas tax with the continued operation of nuclear power plants. One has to do with the other in some way because it’s about energy. Above all, however, it is about the fact that the FDP urgently needs a trophy if its finance minister is to make concessions soon to finance a brake on gas and electricity prices.
Habeck meets the FDP
Habeck is getting comfortable with the FDP, but also with the SPD, whose chancellor has recently had to fear that his image of authority and leadership will begin to suffer permanently under the impression of adventurous disinterest (nuclear energy) and rearguard action (gas billing). . It should now be easier for the coalition to find a successor to the unpopular gas surcharge.
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Of course, all this could and should have come much earlier. Neither the election in Lower Saxony nor the emotional balance of the Greens are reasons why the state should not know if and how things will go on in the winter. The Greens, including those on the left, have harmed themselves: if a party so stubbornly puts its interests above the common good, even well-meaning voters stop enjoying themselves.