Criticism of Baerbock and Scholz: "Would be antisocial if the flight on vacation were a privilege"

Green Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock encounters opposition in the Union and the FDP with her call for the abolition of short-haul flights. Such a ban and massive price increases in air traffic are a wrong approach in climate protection policy, said the deputy head of the Union parliamentary group, Ulrich Lange (CSU), the editorial network Germany. It is important that the flight remains affordable for everyone. “That is why disproportionate price increases are prohibited. It would be antisocial if the flight on vacation were a privilege for the wealthy. That cannot be done with the CDU / CSU. ”FDP leader Christian Lindner also objected.

Baerbock, who is also co-head of the Greens, had announced that in the event of a government takeover, air travel would become more expensive and short-haul flights would be abolished. “There should be no more short-haul flights in perspective,” she said of “Bild am Sonntag”. Even cheap prices such as 29 euros for Mallorca flights should no longer exist if you are serious about climate policy, Baerbock told the newspaper: “Everyone can go on vacation wherever they want. But climate-friendly taxation of flights would stop such dumping prices. "

Most recently, SPD Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz announced that he would take action against cheap flights.

A lower price limit for flights is being implemented, the possibilities for this within European law are being explored.

"No flight can be cheaper than the airport charges and all other charges that arise for it," he had told the ProSieben broadcaster.

Lindner refers to "clean petrol"

Further regulations are legally difficult, said Scholz.

However, that means "that there will certainly not be a (flight) that will then be less than 50 or 60 euros".

Even that is still quite cheap, compared to what air travel would have cost in the past.

The left-wing member of the Bundestag Jörg Cezanne recently called for a kerosene tax for domestic flights in order to increase the pace of the shift to more climate-friendly alternatives such as train travel.

FDP boss Lindner expressed skepticism in the ARD on Sunday evening and referred to market-based solutions.

“We say if it's a CO2 cap, then let's just let the market economy, the entrepreneurship, the entrepreneurial spirit achieve these goals,” he said.

There could also be “clean petrol” if hydrogen could be produced cheaply with wind power off the coast.

The Federal Association of the German Aviation Industry called the analyzes of the Green Chancellor candidate Baerbock "inapplicable" and called for an EU-wide regulation to prevent dumping prices instead of higher taxes. The Federal Government's Tourism Commissioner, Thomas Bareiß, also warned that climate protection should not be at the expense of vacation planning for low-income families. “I think that traveling and flying must also be possible in the future for every budget and not become a luxury for a few. Climate protection and CO2 reduction must be intelligent and implemented using new technologies. Anyone who believes that bans and disproportionate price increases are the right means is on the wrong track, ”said the CDU politician to the German Press Agency.