How the party scares voters away with its climate protection plans

Berlin The pictures from Weimar are intended to convey a message: We stick together, we will get through this. At the start of the three-day Green parliamentary group retreat, not only did the two parliamentary group leaders Katharina Dröge and Britta Haßelmann appear in front of the camera, Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Economics and Climate Minister Robert Habeck also traveled to Thuringia.

A sign should be set in view of the violent dispute over the combustion engine and, above all, in view of the anger about Habeck’s heating plans. From 2035, no new diesel or petrol engines will be registered in the EU. And as early as next year, according to a draft bill, no new oil or gas heating systems should be installed.

Critics, including those from his own coalition, accuse the Vice Chancellor of climate protection with a crowbar. He reacted coldly in Weimar: “It cannot be that in a progress coalition only one coalition partner is responsible for progress and the others for preventing progress,” said Habeck with a view to measures to combat global warming.

The anger is also reflected in surveys. In a survey by the opinion research institute Insa, the Greens were even behind the AfD, which came to 16 percent, with 15 percent.

With a view to the three remaining state elections in Bremen, Hesse and Bavaria this year, some in the party are already afraid of a settlement at the ballot box.

According to the Düsseldorf party researcher Thomas Poguntke, the Greens are tackling very large projects “that have a major impact on the population’s life and wealth planning”. The two biggest wealth decisions in the life of most citizens are the house or apartment and the car. “The Greens want to massively increase the price of both,” says Poguntke.

>> Read here: The climate protection law is a bad design – a comment

In doing so, the Greens would address their core constituency, but they would also make “politics against the majority of the population”. “Basically, the Greens say goodbye to their goal of appealing to all groups of voters and becoming a people’s party,” says Poguntke. Especially in the SPD and Union camp, the Greens could no longer score. The once formulated government claim – also in the federal government – is moving into the distant future.

The anger in the population is not hidden from the Greens. “I have received many critical letters, especially from older people,” says the economic policy spokeswoman for the Greens, Sandra Detzer, on the reactions to the heating plans. But their fears are “fortunately” unjustified. It is usually enough to tell them that they don’t have to rip out their heating overnight.

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Detzer told the Handelsblatt that governing does not mean chasing after the will of the majority in the polls. “We’re staying the course,” is her message before the next meeting of the coalition partners. Politicians must ensure the greatest possible planning security for companies and citizens. “Otherwise we will expose ourselves to the accusation of not making reliable politics.”

The Greens have just been caught on the wrong foot when it comes to heating. Maybe they underestimated the reactions, maybe they felt too sure that their coalition partners SPD and FDP would go along with it.

Many Greens smell a campaign

Habeck reminded in Weimar that the three coalition partners had jointly decided to To decarbonize the building sector – i.e. to significantly reduce its CO2 emissions – in order to achieve the climate protection goals. In fact, the coalition agreement states: “As of January 1, 2025, every newly installed heating system should be operated on the basis of 65 percent renewable energies.” It was clear that this would result in a de facto ban on new oil and gas heating systems.

Then a year ago, when the war against Ukraine had only just begun, the coalition committee brought this decision forward by another year in order to make the sector less dependent on fossil fuels.

facade insulation

Insulating the house saves heating energy.

(Photo: mauritius images / chrome orange)

A draft bill is now available, but this has not yet been finalized between the departments. Federal Building Minister Klara Geywitz (SPD) has already agreed in principle.

She defended the plans on Sunday to achieve climate protection targets in the building sector. “We cannot put off this heating changeover forever,” says the minister on Deutschlandfunk. Her goal is “that it makes economic sense, is socially balanced, does not overwhelm anyone, but also brings with it the necessary ecological reorientation”.

Weil considers the ban on installing new oil and gas heating systems from 2024 to be “not realistic”

But Geywitz penetrates less than Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD), who in the “Bild am Sonntag” criticized a ban on installing new oil and gas heating systems from 2024 as “not realistic”.

In the end, more damage is done than benefit. Many people are now ordering new gas and oil heaters in a panic, Weil said. And numerous problems have not been resolved: “Are there enough installers? What about the people who cannot afford a heat pump?”

>> Read here: Planned law ensures boom in fossil heating

Habeck announced willingness to compromise. Of course there are important, sensible questions, he said. If the debate focused on that, that would be great, said the Vice Chancellor. Most of the time, however, it is about “providing us with prejudices, dividing society, turning climate protection into a culture war and deriving a tactical party advantage from it”. He notes that soberly and irritated, he said.

Economics Minister Robert Habeck

“It cannot be that in a progress coalition only one coalition partner is responsible for progress and the others for preventing progress.”

(Photo: dpa)

Some Greens perceive the negative headlines as a “campaign intended to harm us”, but don’t be honest. “Who would think that we’re doing politics with a crowbar?” they say. That’s nonsense. The Greens would have liked more backbone from both coalition partners, but above all from the SPD comrades.

Green politician Detzer says that reliable cooperation in the coalition is absolutely dependent on the agreements from the coalition agreement applying. When criticized that many cannot afford to replace the heating system, she replies that it protects against future price increases for fossil fuels. “There will also be generous grants,” she assures.

Göring-Eckardt: “Nobody has to rip out the heating”

The Green Bundestag Vice President Kathrin Göring-Eckardt also defended the plans on Monday evening. “Nobody has to rip out the heating,” she said on ARD and advised: “You can also cool down a bit.” Sometimes it’s the debates that make people feel insecure.

Meanwhile, before the coalition meeting, the Greens are also announcing trouble on another topic. On Monday, employees in the Lusatian lignite mining area canceled a meeting in Weimar. A little scandal.

The Greens are in favor of bringing forward the date enshrined in the coal phase-out law to 2030. So far, the end of the coal-fired power plants in Brandenburg, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt is planned for “2038 at the latest”. The group works council of the energy company Leag accused the Greens of wanting to set “an arbitrary new exit date”.

This was not a new idea and was also mentioned as a goal in the traffic light coalition agreement. But in a draft resolution for the closed conference, it was now clearly written down again. It states that this is a “necessary step to achieve the climate goals”. For western Germany, the phase-out of coal by 2030 has already been sealed since last year.

Dröge called the cancellation regrettable. “The conversation is worthwhile when there are different perspectives,” she explained. “We want planning security and reliability for the employees in the region.”

More: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report: The 1.5 degree target could be exceeded by 2040

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