Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) accuses former Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and her governments, to which Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) also belonged, of making serious mistakes in energy policy.

"When you have your picture taken in front of icebergs, but forget that icebergs melt.

Getting off all sorts of things, rightly so, but forget that you have to build infrastructure for that.

If you make climate policy decisions, but don't back them up with measures, then you leave Germany out in the rain," he said on Thursday in the Bundestag in Berlin.

During the deliberations on the legislative package for the faster expansion of renewable energies, Habeck settled accounts with the previous government policy.

"And that's what we've seen in the past: increasing dependence on Russian fossil fuels, lack of diversification, non-compliance with climate policy targets, sluggish, even collapsed, expansion of renewable energies," he said.

In his own words, Habeck was reacting to allegations by the “opposition leader”, i.e. the Union.

Worries about Russian gas

After the debate, the Bundestag passed a series of laws to strengthen renewable energies on Thursday.

This set the goal for at least 80 percent of the German electricity supply to come from renewable sources in 2030;

by 2035, the proportion is expected to increase to almost 100 percent.

To this end, the expansion targets for solar and wind energy, both on land and at sea, have been raised.

"If we had pulled through these packages ten years ago, we would be in a very different position today," said Habeck. 

Along with this vote, changes are also to be made to the Energy Security Act.

This means that higher energy supplier prices can be passed on and passed on to customers;

State participation in struggling energy companies will be simplified.

Energy production from sources such as sun, water and wind is also classified as being “of overriding public interest”.

Significantly more energy is to be generated by wind power both at sea and on land.

In the future, two percent of the federal area should be available for wind energy.

The package also regulates the compatibility of wind power with species protection.

The EEG surcharge will be finally abolished with the legislative package.

The government is also worried about the energy supply, as Russian gas supplies are faltering and prices are rising.

When asked about a possible collapse of the market, Habeck said on Wednesday evening in the ZDF program "Markus Lanz" that that would not happen.

"Now this is this 'whatever it takes' moment, it's not going to happen," he said, echoing statements by former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi.

The Italian had once promised to save the euro with this "whatever is necessary".