Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck’s gas levy was such bad government work that not even he could use his rhetorical talent to sugarcoat it. In this respect, the Vice Chancellor is currently realizing like no other: There is a fine line between governing and dabbling.
Of course, the entire traffic light government is walking these days.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz was the moderator at the beginning of the cabinet retreat in Meseberg and promised that his cabinet would work closely together. However, Habeck had previously received a lot of it from his coalition partners SPD and FDP.
Envy of the Vice Chancellor’s popularity should also play a role: Social Democrats and Liberals would like to clip Habeck’s Greens to normal in the polls before the state elections in Lower Saxony in October.
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Citizens need a real alternative to the compulsory levy
But the citizens are only of secondary interest in the tactical games of politics. Above all, they ask themselves how this anti-social, probably unconstitutional and overall simply poorly made legal regulation can be done away with. The compulsory levy that all gas customers will have to pay from October cannot remain as it is. This is now clear to everyone involved.
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Only now has happened what shouldn’t have happened under any circumstances. The Federal Minister of Economics made adjustments in Meseberg – but only a little and badly at that. Habeck only wants the income from the gas surcharge to go to companies that in return forego bonus payments for the board members and that are systemically important for the German energy market
Apart from the fact that this should be a matter of course: the measures seem completely hasty and are only a calming pill for the stunned gas customers.
There are already too many inconsistencies. The companies could simply not pay out bonuses and then take the apportionment with them. In addition, no one can really answer the question of which company is systemically important. So there has to be a lot more to come.
Scholz and Habeck should know: A pipe burst is enough. Here it would have been better if a legion of lawyers had taken a few days to come up with a clean solution. The Germans are facing a hard winter. The nerves are on edge, the office bonus of chancellor and minister is quickly used up.
More: Habeck wants to decouple the electricity price from the gas price