- Greens have ideological cloaks
Saxony's Minister President Michael Kretschmer (CDU) accused his Green coalition partner of wearing "ideological blinkers" on the issue of the energy transition. "It's not about what's reasonable, what's economically right. It's just about the party program," he said at a debate of top candidates for the state election on September 1st, organized by the "Sächsische Zeitung", the "Freie Presse" and the "Leipziger Volkszeitung" in Dresden.
The energy transition as it is currently being pursued has failed, he said, and it needs to be restarted. "We will manage it, but we have to remove all ideological blinkers," said Kretschmer. We also need to talk about nuclear power and domestic gas.
Katja Meier, the Green Party's top candidate and currently Minister of Justice, disagreed with Kretschmer. The energy transition has not failed, she said. The CDU and SPD had only planned the exit from nuclear and coal, not the entry into renewable energies. The Greens, however, had done just that at the federal and state levels.
Meier also clashed with AfD top candidate Jörg Urban on this topic. "One of the main reasons why industrial companies say they are leaving Germany is the energy prices," said Urban. The further expansion of renewable energies would make electricity even more expensive. The energy transition is dependent on subsidies, and the money for this has to be earned. "It's the money that's burdening our economy," said Urban. He wants to rely on nuclear power, as other European countries do, and continue to use brown coal.
Meier strongly disagreed with this view. "If anything has been highly subsidized over decades, it's nuclear power," she said. Poland and the Czech Republic have indeed decided in favor of nuclear power, but due to planning difficulties and lack of insurance, they have postponed it "to the never-never land." Moreover, electricity from renewable sources - contrary to what Urban had previously stated - is a reason for companies to settle in a region.
The CDU, led by Saxony's Minister President Michael Kretschmer, has criticized the Green Party's approach to the energy transition, stating that they are prioritizing ideology over reasonability and economic feasibility. The CDU believes that the current approach to the energy transition has failed and needs to be reformed, with a focus on removing ideological blinkers and discussing the role of nuclear power and domestic gas.
