CDU leader Friedrich Merz doesn’t think much of the final shutdown of the nuclear power plants.Image: imago / Sven Simon
Politics
The time has come: On Saturday, April 15, the last three nuclear power plants in Germany will be taken off the grid. An exit that was already decided in 2011 – after the super meltdown in Fukushima, Japan. The end of an era that lasted almost 66 years. On October 31, 1957, the first German research reactor went online.
The coming generations will still have to struggle with the radiant garbage of these 66 years. To this day there is no repository. Nevertheless, some find it difficult to say goodbye to the supposedly clean and cheap energy.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz even compares the current decisions of the traffic light government with Shakespeare’s dramas.
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Merz calls nuclear shutdown “madness”
In his newsletter “#MerzMail”, the CDU boss writes: Shakespeare did not yet know the German Greens in his day, but “Shakespeare’s drama certainly shows parallels to current German energy policy, at least in terms of its complexity and the inscrutability of its actors.”
The irrationality is particularly evident this weekend: in the midst of “the greatest energy crisis,” writes Merz, the last three nuclear power plants are being shut down. And that, the CDU politician is convinced, for purely ideological reasons. The founding myth of the Greens triumphed over reason with this decision, says Merz. While the end of nuclear power was being celebrated, dirty coal-fired power plants had to be started up again.
Greenpeace activists protest in front of the Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant.Image: dpa / Christoph Schmidt
Individual coal-fired power plants were connected to the grid again last October to compensate for a possible energy bottleneck. The emergency ordinance is valid until the end of April.
Merz adds:
“Such a scenario would have surpassed even Shakespeare’s imagination and imagination of human insanity.”
In Hamlet’s words, Merz explains: “If this is madness, there is method in it.” The opposition leader complains that German energy policy is characterized by one-sidedness. And the people don’t do it. He cites the climate referendum in Berlin as proof. The initiators not only missed the quorum with their request to make Berlin climate-neutral by 2030 – there were also almost as many “No” as “Yes” votes.
The referendum in Paris, which entails a ban on e-scooters, is also for Merz a sign that climate and environmental protection cannot be enforced against the population.
Markus Söder declares nuclear power off to be an “energy policy sin”
The head of the sister party CSU, Markus Söder, is also not convinced of the nuclear power phase-out. In an interview with “Focus Online” he already announced that it was clear to him: “If the Union wins the next federal election, there should be an extension of nuclear energy.” An exit from the exit, then.
On Twitter, he declares switching off to be an “energy policy sin”. He writes: “We currently need all possible forms of energy. Here at the Isar 2 nuclear power plant, one of the safest plants in the world has to be taken off the grid.” From his point of view, nuclear energy is still needed in order to have enough electricity even on windless nights. Like Merz, Söder also accuses the Greens and the traffic light of “double standards”. He writes:
“Anyone who relies on coal instead of nuclear energy is sinning against the climate. The nuclear power plants must continue to run!”
