Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet called for faster approval procedures on Friday at the construction site of the US electric car manufacturer Tesla in Grünheide near Berlin.
The CDU chairman spoke out on the side of company boss Elon Musk for a change in the collective rights of action.
"It is not acceptable that someone who is not affected as a local resident here, but lives by the North Sea or the Bavarian Alps, can file a lawsuit to stop such projects."
Musk said it was problematic when new regulations came in every year and they reached a level where nothing could be done.
The regulations would have to be regularly reviewed.
Tesla is building a car factory near the capital's airport.
Around 500,000 cars are to be built there every year.
Production was supposed to start in July, but the end of the year is now in the room.
On Friday, Musk said he was hoping for production to start in October.
Tesla is also planning a battery factory, which is delaying the approval process.
So far, the company has been building with early approvals.
The Tesla boss was confident that the approval process would be completed in October.
Elon Musk criticized the length of the approval process in April.
This triggered a discussion about planning and environmental law in Germany.
“We have to get faster,” said Laschet.
"We have to unleash, the shackles that are currently inhibiting decisions have to be removed so that we can achieve the energy transition and the transport transition."
Laschet said that Tesla had taken an enormous risk with the billion-dollar investment.
"If the permit is not granted, they have to dismantle everything here." He is committed to ensuring that other companies can also build innovative industrial plants without taking such a huge risk.
When asked what he thinks of Laschet, Musk says: "He seems to be a great guy." The question of whether the politician will become the next Federal Chancellor, however, has to be decided by the German people in the elections.