German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 20/82,
pp. 9739-9740.
Dear citizens. Frau President. Ladies and gentlemen.
Herr Minister Habeck, you say that the crisis is governable.
I say: Before all, we can thank the weather god that we have so mild a winter.
This has created the possibility of still changing things. Otherwise, it would
appear very, very gloomy in our country.
No problem has been solved. You needed to finally come to
that and your report grants nothing at all of that. You serve up to us the same
transformation sauce as in last year. That will not improve the situation; it
will further intensify it. Yet we all in common cannot want that.
What do you do against the inflation? Nothing. We have seen
the numbers in your report. Six percent inflation. If we take out the energy
relief at the pump, we are at 7.5 percent. At the savings account, there is
perhaps one percent interest if it goes well. That means, there is a money
devaluation of five or six percent each year for that bit of savings which we
have. In that regard, everything at the supermarket becomes more expensive. It
is a sozial annihilation program and
in return you so far do nothing.
You see the data. The brewers have just said: The beer
becomes more expensive. Now you can say: Not absolutely everyone needs drink
beer. That may be. Yet it is much more dramatic in regards our industrial
backbone. Large concerns are at the tipping point: BASF, Bayer, BioNTech. The de-industrialization
of our country continues and I sense here in this room no panic at all. It
somehow appears to be that all of that will be accepted. Yet that cannot be!
We are no longer internationally competitive. The others
slowly surpass us. We need to do something to counter that, by which we finally
improve our general conditions in Germany and bring down energy prices, and
indeed permanently.
What is it then when the automobile industry goes, when
chemicals step by step disappear from our country? In the end, no one remains
to whom the Mittelstand can sell
something. The Mittelstand has “Germany
for life”, it remains here, it must remain here. If the giants are gone, then
they do not quickly come again. The workplaces are lost. In cannot so continue.
To the contrary, you as Economy Minister need now finally lead.
You can happily dream of becoming the green economy party of
which I have read today. That of course is of no use to you if the hitherto
economy has been run away.
No, this crisis is not so governable. In any case, not if
one believes himself in this situation to be able, with the fantasy of an
expensive eco-transformation, to continue into an energy nothing. You thereby
put in play our prosperity.
Timon Gremmels (SPD): If we do nothing, then we put in play the prosperity! Mein Gott!
There is much to do. There are so many things to do: The
reconstruction of the infrastructure – even here, you are blockading, as we
see, the street reconstruction – , the bureaucracy deconstruction. Elsewhere,
guidelines are abolished. What happens with us? We require a “supply chain care
obligation law” [Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz];
all actually speak this word monstrosity. Does anyone here still want to speak
seriously of bureaucracy deconstruction? Nothing happens in this country.
Other countries perceive that the withdrawal from nuclear
power was nonsense because we require at every time a sufficient supply of
energy. We need nevertheless act when we see that in the auto industry the
electricity costs for the production of one auto have risen to 800 euros. In
the U.S.A., they have also risen, but to 250 dollars. This distinction makes
clear: We cannot live long with these energy prices. The energy prices must
come down; we need a sufficient energy supply.
On that account, the power plants at hand need to continue
to run beyond April 15, 2023. We have secure power plants. The Belgians do it:
They let them continue to run for ten years – power plants which are less
secure than ours. Why, please, don’t we do it when even your Federal Network
Agency chief says: “That could actually be done”?
Timon
Gremmels (SPD): He did not!
Felix Banaszak (Greens): Not at all! False accusation!
He said it for the French power plants which we also use.
And if it applies to the French power plants, then it rightly applies for our
secure nuclear power plants.
Timon
Gremmels (SPD): No!
Felix Banaszak (Greens): That is a false accusation!
No, it is your policy which refuses to accept these things.
You refuse to accept a rational energy policy which is necessary, as is managed
by other countries around us. There have been warnings of electricity
rationing. The city plants warn of long-term doubled prices for electricity and
gas. All of this happens in our country. It is your false policy.
Herr Minister, you squander too much time on developing new,
rosy, feel-good dictates for your economy report. Please finally do your
official duty so that our businesses remain here and our workplaces continue to
remain in this country.
Thank you.
[trans: tem]
