“We must not go from one fossil dependency to the next.
Therefore, the expansion of renewable energies is the order of the day right now.” Omid Nouripour, one of the two federal chairmen of the Greens, issued this warning on Friday evening in the Museum Wiesbaden.
During the summer reception of the Wiesbaden Greens, he also called for understanding that gas supply contracts were being concluded with Qatar and Egypt and that new liquid gas terminals were being built in order to secure Germany's energy supply.
"We're doing this because we have to," Nouripour said to the 80 or so people present, adding: "We're at a multiple turning point because we have multiple crises." he said on the sidelines of the event.
War in Ukraine, inflation, corona pandemic and the threat of gas shortages - the multitude of current crises led to the unusual situation that the Greens' federal chairman only touched on climate and environmental policy in his speech.
The Frankfurter, who won his Frankfurt II constituency directly in the most recent federal election last year, was apparently only really happy when he mentioned the upcoming state elections in Hesse next year.
"I'm so glad and happy that we're in the situation of having a three-way battle again," said Nouripour.
"The idea that Tarek Al-Wazir can become prime minister in this country is just a dream," he added.
Whether this Green dream can be realized will probably also depend on how the citizens evaluate the Green policy in the federal government.
Nouripour knows that too.
"The greatest help we can provide is to continue to make good policies that noticeably improve people's lives, even when faced with the challenges ahead," he says.
In this sense, the Wiesbaden district association chair Uta Brehm had previously expressed.
"For us, good politics is doing the right thing," she clarified, adding that this is not always popular.
Relief packages worth billions
One of the crises that is weighing on many people right now is inflation, which Nouripour described as worrying.
He warned that this could increase further in the fall if Russia shuts off the gas supply completely.
"As a state, we cannot absorb all of the inflation," he said when asked and pointed out: "We have already put together two billion-dollar relief packages, some of which are not yet in force.
The immediate child supplement and the energy subsidy will only come now”.
Nouripour announced that it would review the effect of the previous decisions over the course of the summer.
"It's obvious, and we know that too, that people with a small budget in particular who depend on their car need massive relief at the petrol pumps," he said, defending the controversial fuel discount.
Now it is necessary to equip the cartel office with more power as quickly as possible in order to prevent possible price fixing.
When asked whether the European Central Bank (ECB) needed to do more to combat inflation, the Federal President replied that the ECB had already announced a key rate hike.
He assumes that this will happen again in the autumn.
Nevertheless, he expressed the opinion that interest rate policy is not decisive because it is supply-side inflation.
Nouripour cited disrupted supply chains and the ongoing shortage of semiconductors as examples.
The ECB is therefore acting “wisely” with its cautious policy.
He did not accept the objection that almost all other Western central banks were raising interest rates faster and more decisively, because Europe was affected differently by inflation.
“The Corona aid has caused the money supply in the euro zone to skyrocket.
It's not like that in the US," he said.
He did not mention the ECB's bond purchases over the years in this context.
Lowering the heating temperature
Against the background of the throttled gas supply from Russia, Nouripour also took the view that lowering the heating temperature could be necessary next winter in order to save gas.
"It is now necessary to point out how far we will have to go if we get the gas tap cut off by Russia," he explained, describing corresponding statements by Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (The Greens) as "pre-warning".
“No one should freeze in winter.
It's about saving now," the federal chairman said.
However, longer operation of the nuclear power plants is not an issue for Nouripour.
Because it has not been clarified how the required fuel elements can be procured or how the nuclear waste can be disposed of.
In this regard, he pointed out that Russia supplies about 25 percent of the uranium for European nuclear power plants.
"We don't want any more uranium from Russia," Nouripour said, but defended that there have been no sanctions against Russia in relation to uranium imports: "We mustn't cut individual states so hard in the flesh that it won't stop bleeding." .” He compared the French dependence on Russian uranium with the German dependence on Russian gas.