Leading SPD politicians have clearly rejected new demands from the Union for a lifetime extension for nuclear power plants.

SPD leader Lars Klingbeil spoke on RTL of a "trip into the past".

Parliamentary secretary Katja Mast also reaffirmed the adherence to the nuclear phase-out at the end of the year.

"It's something where the Union is totally lost when you look at the realities," said Klingbeil.

There are no fuel rods, the staff has been reduced, security checks have no longer taken place.

"The Union knows that," said the SPD chairman.

"This debate, which the Union is conducting, to rely on the past again, on old forms of energy, is damaging to Germany as a business location," he continued.

Instead, the expansion of renewable energies must be vigorously promoted, said Klingbeil.

"We have to get faster there, we have to be more consistent, that will secure jobs in Germany for the future."

Mast speaks out against fracking

Mast emphasized that the nuclear phase-out was by no means just a concern of the Greens.

The SPD also helped push this through, "I want to emphasize that again," said the SPD politician on Wednesday in Berlin.

"For the SPD, turning away from the phase-out of nuclear energy is not on the agenda," Mast clarified.

She also referred to security issues and practical obstacles.

She also reminded that in the winter there would be a bottleneck more in the heat sector than in electricity.

Mast also opposed entry into gas production through fracking in Germany.

This was rejected and "I see no factual arguments to open this debate again.

In any case, gas for Germany is "only a bridging technology, not the long-term model for the future", instead she campaigned for the expansion of renewable energies.

To this end, the Bundestag is to adopt a comprehensive package of measures on Thursday.

The CDU politician Johann Wadephul campaigned for longer battery life on the RTL and ntv channels.

"You can't explain to anyone that we are shutting down three nuclear power plants if it is completely unclear how we will get through the winter energetically," said Wadephul.

In the debate, he warned of an “ideological barrier”.

There had recently been calls for a move away from the nuclear phase-out from the FDP.