Germany shuts down nuclear power plants

Published in: 22.06.2011

Only half a year ago, the federal government agreed on extending the run-times of German nuclear power stations. In light of the incidents at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, however, the government proclaimed a turnaround in energy policy. Already in March, the governing coalition of Conservatives and Liberals declared a three-month long moratorium on nuclear power until mid-June in which eight reactors were taken offline and safety checks were carried out at all nuclear facilities.

After months of public debate on the future energy policy, the Merkel government recently drafted amendments to the Atomic Energy Act, which would lead to step-by-step shutdown of all nuclear power stations in Germany until 2022. While the Social Democrats are likely to support the coalition’s proposal, the Green party is set for a major internal battle this week, when its leadership asks parliamentarians to support the German government's nuclear power exit strategy even if it is less ambitious than they would like.

The liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), the junior partner in Germany’s coalition government, carried out a major internal personnel shuffle in May which included changes both within Chancellor Merkel’s cabinet and the FDP parliamentary group. In the framework of the reshuffle, Philipp Rösler was freed from the unpopular health portfolio and took over the post of economics minister from his colleague, Rainer Brüderle, who became parliamentary leader of the FDP in the Bundestag. The health ministry was taken over by Rösler’s close ally Daniel Bahr, who had previously been parliamentary state secretary. Mr. Rösler was elected to lead Germany’s Free Democrats at the FDP’s party conference, bringing the 10-year FDP chairmanship of Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle to an end. He also took over the role of Angela Merkel’s Vice-Chancellor.

Despite the summer season, thinking of Greece will most likely not evoke any positive feelings for Chancellor Merkel. While she has managed to agree with French President Nicholas Sarkozy on a voluntary contribution by private investors to the Greek rescue package, Merkel is not yet out of the woods. Many conservative as well as liberal MPs complain that there apparently is money for the Greek but no money to relieve German taxpayers - a central campaign promise by the Liberals. In a recent resolution, the German Parliament demanded that private investors should be “adequately participated” in the costs of the Greek rescue package. For now, Merkel’s majority is relatively stable, but every vote on new loans is now essentially a vote of confidence for the Chancellor.

What do we think?

"Currently, the Government is torn between the struggle of the coalition partners CDU, CSU and FDP to revamp their profile in light of the latest defeats in regional elections and the government’s U-turn in nuclear policy. Especially in the field of domestic security, the intra-governmental debate is causing paralysis: Whereas the liberal FDP is anxious to sharpen its profile as civil rights party, the conservative CDU/CSU is trying to regain credibility by following a strict ‘law and order’ policy."
-- Max Conzemius, Junior Consultant

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