The Greens have expressed massive dissatisfaction with the current work of the traffic light coalition. At the beginning of a closed conference of the parliamentary group in Weimar, Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) accused the coalition partners of a lack of climate policy ambition. “It cannot be that in a progress coalition only one coalition partner is responsible for progress and the others for preventing progress,” said Habeck.
Habeck: Other parties are preventing progress
The Vice-Chancellor listed a number of issues within the coalition, especially with the FDP – such as the heat transition with the planned phasing out of oil and gas heating, the end of the combustion engine and an immediate climate protection program for the transport sector. On all these points he complained about resistance in the coalition.
Habeck warned against trying to score points by slowing down climate protection policy in elections: “A federal election that rewards those politicians who have solved the least – we don’t feel like it.” The transport sector and Minister Wissing have the issue of compliance with the climate goals something still to be done, Habeck also states in an interview with the “HE DOES” clear. Habeck also clearly criticized the dispute over the combustion engine end with the EU on Tuesday. “It is now also damaging Germany,” he said. The debate must come to an end quickly.
SPD, Greens and FDP want to meet at the weekend for a coalition committee to tackle key issues. As the AFP news agency learned from party circles on Tuesday, the meeting should take place on Sunday evening. The co-chair of the Greens parliamentary group, Katharina Dröge, mentioned the main issues with the FDP: the end of combustion engines, the acceleration of planning and an immediate climate protection program for the transport sector.
Habeck expects a breakthrough, he told the “FAZ”. “The coalition committee must create momentum. That’s doable, because personally the atmosphere in the coalition is intact,” said Habeck. One thing is clear: we can only get out of this if everyone wins something. But that also means that everyone has to give something.
Habeck: Traffic light falls behind self-imposed goals due to disputes
Habeck did not expressly name the FDP as the addressee of his tirade on Tuesday – but his statements reflected a lot of displeasure with the liberals. In recent months, the FDP, weakened by poor election and poll results, has repeatedly opposed the climate policy ideas of its coalition partner, the Greens. In Weimar, the Economics Minister criticized attempts to “return climate protection to a culture war and to take advantage of it for party tactics”.
Contrary to previous agreements, the demanding challenges of climate policy resulted in a “division” in the coalition that some have to worry about it and others less,” criticized Habeck. This means that the “traffic light” falls short of the goals it had set itself.
Green co-chairman scolds Transport Minister Wissing
The co-chair of the Greens parliamentary group, Katharina Dröge, complained about a standstill in climate policy in the “traffic light”: “We finally want things to move again in the coalition.” She specifically criticized the FDP Federal Minister of Transport, Volker Wissing, who committed himself to an immediate climate protection program for the transport sector. Wissing is a minister “who doesn’t see it as his job at the moment to solve the problem,” said Dröge. The coalition leaders would have to talk about this at their meeting on Sunday.
With the planning acceleration, the FDP also demands a forced expansion of motorways. Dröge referred to the coalition agreement, which focuses on rails, bridges and network expansion. “If you really want to get to planning acceleration, then you have to prioritize,” she said. Otherwise there is a risk of a “planning backlog in Germany”.
The government is also arguing about basic child security
There are also a number of other conflict issues in the coalition. The Greens and FDP have been arguing for weeks about the financing of basic child security, in which various support services are to be bundled in the future. Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) rejects a simultaneous increase in payments, which the Greens in particular are calling for.
Lindner wants to continue to comply with the debt brake in the budget for the coming year. Due to additional demands from other departments worth billions, he had to postpone the cabinet decision on the budget key points for 2024 and the financial plan until 2027, which was planned for mid-March.
