There have been friendlier phases in the relationship between the CDU and the Greens. The Union wants to torment the Minister of Economic Affairs with an investigative committee, but he is launching a counterattack. In the evening, the two will meet on Illner. And they do not disappoint.
The old image of the cart in the mud is what this evening is about. “This government is in the process of pulling the cart out of the mud,” says Robert Habeck on ZDF with Maybritt Illner. But Friedrich Merz sees it differently: “You are really driving it into it!” the CDU leader hurls at the Greens' economics minister.
The two are the only guests in the studio late Thursday evening. If you're looking for a way to distinguish between politicians, you'll get it here. Merz versus Habeck is like nuclear power versus wind power, like Mercedes versus cargo bikes. Subsidies versus “The market will sort it out”. Black versus Green in early summer 2024.
Three days before the European elections, the EU is only mentioned in passing. The duel still feels like an election campaign. Just for the federal election in a year and a half. But who knows, as Merz likes to say, how long the traffic light coalition will last. It is currently negotiating a new budget. Also an exciting topic, but Illner is focusing on other issues: energy policy, Ukraine, migration and the economy.
When it comes to Ukraine and migration, however, the two more or less agree. Europe's freedom is at stake, and it is in Germany's interest to help the Ukrainians. Murderers like the Mannheim attacker must be able to be deported – Habeck also says this very clearly.
“It will become clear who told the truth”
When it comes to energy and the economy, however, Merz and Habeck are really at loggerheads. The CDU has just announced a committee of inquiry into the nuclear phase-out in 2023. They suspect that something was not right. “You said that you are openly, transparently and unconditionally examining continued operation,” Merz coolly retorts to Habeck. Because that is precisely what the CDU has doubts about. Experts in the ministry saw opportunities to continue operating the three remaining nuclear power plants. This is shown by the files that have now been made public.
It is also about the possible influence of the Green parliamentary group on the decision. “And is it true what you claimed, that the operators could not and did not want to continue operating the nuclear power plants,” he says in the tone of a judge. “It will become clear who was telling the truth. One did not tell it and the other did, and we are now clearing that up.”
Habeck's responses are like a verbal eye roll. He says he has now understood for the first time what the Union's misunderstanding could be. “Of course, continued operation with new fuel elements would always have been possible beyond 2023. That is undisputed,” he says. In fact, however, the issue was a completely different one: whether the nuclear power plants had helped to reduce gas consumption. In other words, to replace gas-fired power generation. And that was not the case. Also because there was no longer much electricity to be extracted from the fuel rods in the nuclear power plants.
Habeck is not wrong about this – but one important aspect is being overlooked: the price of electricity. Nuclear power plants still accounted for six percent of the electricity mix. The price of electricity has fallen since the nuclear phase-out and has not exploded. But it might be even lower today if the nuclear power plants had remained on the grid. Economist Veronika Grimm is certain that this would have been the case.
CDU’s sore point
The fact that Merz and the Union are setting up a committee of inquiry is a frontal attack. But the Greens are already launching a counterattack. And it hits a sore spot for the CDU: the energy policy under Chancellor Angela Merkel. The dependence on Russian gas was growing ever greater, and with Nord Stream 2 it would have increased again. “If Nord Stream 2 had gone online a year earlier, we probably wouldn't have survived 2022 economically or socially,” says Habeck. If there is an interest in finding out more, one could also ask how these “serious misjudgments could have come about.” He also includes the gas storage facilities that were sold to Russia.
Which means that Habeck has finally got to the point where the cart is stuck in the mud. He describes the traffic light coalition's takeover of the government as sweeping up the mess that the Union left behind. His shutdown of the nuclear power plants, on the other hand, has caused no damage. Unlike the dependence on Russian gas. Because when that stopped coming, energy costs exploded. Industry, small and medium-sized businesses and tradesmen plunged into a crisis.
For Habeck, this is the root of the problem. The high energy prices had an impact on food prices, everything became more expensive, and consumption collapsed as a result. Then the European Central Bank raised interest rates to bring inflation down again. But this made loans expensive and caused investments to collapse. From the minister's point of view, all roads lead back to the CDU and the love of Russian gas. The SPD and Gerhard Schröder's network were also the driving force behind this. But Habeck leaves that out.
Parade discipline: lecture
The minister has just explained away the crisis when Merz comes out with his signature discipline, the lecture: “The situation is so dramatically bad that it is embarrassing for the finance minister. The Chancellor says: everything is fine. In this coalition you have no consensus on the key economic policy issues. In this coalition you don't know what to do. You have no economic policy.”
Merz is thus exposing the government's weakness: whether one is for or against Habeck's subsidy policy – there is also a dispute about it within the traffic light coalition itself. “You create a heating law and harass the government and the whole country for months with this botched law,” he complains. In the year before last, 125 billion euros of capital flowed out of Germany, more than ever before. “What you are doing in economic policy, if you can even speak of economic policy, is a complete disaster.”
He then accuses him of not being present enough in Brussels, castigates the citizen's income and criticizes Habeck's subsidy policy. Instead, favorable conditions should be created for the entire economy. Habeck disagrees vigorously, portraying Merz and his thinking as outdated. China is a systemic rival, so semiconductor production is needed in Germany or Europe, for example. And this must be promoted.
Merz and Habeck only agreed that the cart is stuck in the mud. After the sometimes heated debate, this does not only seem to apply to the economy. But also, at least today, to all fantasies involving a black-green coalition. In any case, mutual sympathies seem to be very limited.
