BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – The parliamentary group of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU/CSU) in the Bundestag is demanding full transparency from the federal government in the decision-making process regarding the nuclear phase-out. The article in the magazine “Cicero”, according to which the Ministries of the Economy and the Environment would have stifled in 2022 internal doubts about the meaning of the nuclear phase-out, then still planned for the beginning of the following year – what the Ministry of the Economy disputes is unfounded.
“If the technical expertise of your services had to give way to considerations of partisan politics, the processes and facts presented in the article “The anti-nuclear scam” are of a nature, even beyond the question concrete of the continued operation of nuclear power plants, to fundamentally call into question the confidence of citizens in the institutions of the State. In a letter sent Thursday to the Minister of the Economy Robert Habeck and to the Minister of the Environment Steffi Lemke (both Greens), the two vice-presidents of the parliamentary group Jens Spahn and Steffen Bilger (both CDU) write that they believe that “confidence in state institutions is massively damaged”. transmitted to the German Press Agency in Berlin.
“Cicero” bases its article on the internal correspondence of the two ministries. Spahn and Bilger deplore the fact that the ministries did not respond to the Bundestag’s requests to make the documents public. This should now be done, demand the two deputies, who also want to obtain “all other bases and procedures for decision and information”. “They reserve the right to take additional measures in the course of parliamentary work to ensure full explanation and information to Parliament and the public.
The leaders of the CDU/CSU group said: “We expressly reserve the right to set up a commission of inquiry. Much now depends on Habeck and Lemke’s desire for transparency.”
On April 15, 2023, Germany definitively abandoned nuclear power and closed its last three reactors. The power plants should have initially been disconnected from the grid at the start of the previous year, but their operation had been extended to guarantee the electricity supply. The Greens had long opposed such a measure, but ultimately supported the concept of a temporary operational reserve for two of the last three German nuclear power plants presented by Habeck and the nuclear power plant operators in September 2022. The FDP was in principle in favor of a longer operating life. In October 2022, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) supported the continued operation of the three reactors until the spring.
