Nuclear power twist latest drain on German coalition’s energy

Germany got into nuclear energy 52 years ago and, as part of a shift to renewables, has spent the last 21 years trying to get out again.

In the latest plot twist, chancellor Olaf Scholz issued a written executive order this week — in three, terse paragraphs — for Germany’s three remaining nuclear power plants to remain open and generating electricity beyond a December 31st deadline to go offline.

Together the plants contribute 6 per cent of Germany’s electricity, more than all its offshore wind farms put together, and they will be vital to plug the energy gap left by missing Russian gas imports.

After emotional debate, lengthier than the proposed nuclear extension, the fact that the Social Democrat leader had to invoke rarely used constitutional powers to override his coalition partners tells a story all of its own.

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The liberal, pronuclear Free Democratic Party is anxious to deliver on energy security promises for its business clientele and revive its flagging political profile after a recent regional election disaster. FDP leader Christian Lindner, who is also federal finance minister, says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine demands a revised timetable for Germany’s renewable energy transition.

Nuclear plants with enough fuel, the FDP says, should keep operating into 2024, or until their rods are exhausted. “This isn’t politics, it’s physics,” said Lindner.

That has spooked the FDP’s Green coalition partner. At their party conference last weekend, Green delegates restated their firm opposition to nuclear energy and vowed to block any backdoor renaissance.

Fuel rods

Even as Germany’s neighbours build new reactors, ex-Green leader Robert Habeck — now energy and economics minister — said Germany’s nuclear exit was sealed, if delayed, and that Berlin would buy no further fuel rods. “That will not happen with us,” he said.

Senior Green backbenchers call the Scholz intervention a “serious stress test” for the coalition. So much so that former environment minister Jürgen Trittin said that, unlike cabinet members, Green MPs were not legally bound by the Scholz intervention and could rebel against the proposed extension in a looming Bundestag vote.

For many observers, the nuclear standoff is the new low point in a 10-month policy and personality rivalry between Lindner and Habeck. They are now so at loggerheads, according to well-placed sources, that not even two personal interventions by Scholz in recent days could ease the antipathy and end the standoff.

A year after taking office, with the Ukraine war scrambling its progressive transformation agenda, Berlin’s so-called traffic light coalition, and its chancellor, are in uncharted waters.

That Scholz played the cabinet competence card so early in his chancellorship is an indication of the gravity of the situation and the time pressure to rewrite nuclear reactor legislation.

On Tuesday, opposition Christian Democratic Union leader Christian Merz reminded Scholz how he insisted in August that he couldn’t imagine “writing someone a letter saying, ‘Dear Minister, do this…’”

Hours after Scholz did just that, the CDU leader accused the chancellor of bringing Germany into a more dangerous situation in the last year than the 16 previous Merkel-era years.

Sticking plaster

Bavarian centre-right leader Markus Söder of the Christian Social Union (CSU) went further, accusing the chancellor of wasting time — and credibility — with sticking plaster solutions.

Four months’ debate for a four-month energy breather was, he said, “too little, too late”.

“Instead of taking necessary decisions,” argued Söder, “the coalition decides everything a bit at a time and clearly too slowly.”

Even if Germany scrapes through the winter of 2022/2023 on the energy front, the nuclear debate may roar back into life again next spring over how to get through the next winter.

For now, opinion in Berlin is divided over whether, with his executive order, Scholz has underlined — or undermined — his authority.

While ex-chancellor Gerhard Schröder, a Scholz political mentor, was a fan of so-called “basta” decisions, Angela Merkel managed four full terms without ever activating the so-called chancellor competences.

“Scholz has set a high bar and can only hope now that neither of the coalition partners will challenge him again,” said Dr Gero Neugebauer, political scientist at Berlin’s Free University.

“Scholz has a limited appetite for his smaller coalition partners’ identity conflicts. The Berlin traffic light coalition is flashing amber.”