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Chancellor Olaf Scholz: "It squeaks from time to time"

Photo: TOBIAS SCHWARZ / AFP

In the coalition's internal dispute over the so-called heating law, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is relaxed. The forced replacement of old heating systems planned by Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) affects a lot of people, he said on Saturday evening at "The Long Night of Time" in Hamburg. That's why it's a question that is immediately suitable for excitement."

Scholz acknowledged discord in the traffic lights: "It squeaks from time to time because the curve is so steep," he said. Everyone is always "a little bit right". But he often thinks: "Couldn't they say it a little more quietly?" The conflict can only be resolved "by proceeding as pragmatically as possible, by not being too proud to accept criticism, and then working out a good solution – and that is exactly what everyone involved is trying to do." The goal is clear: climate neutrality must also be achieved in the building sector by 2045.

Due to fundamental concerns, the FDP has so far prevented the bill on heating replacement, which has already been passed by the cabinet, from being dealt with in the Bundestag. This stipulates that from the beginning of 2024 onwards, at least 65 percent of every newly installed heating system will be powered by green energy. The changeover is to be cushioned socially by state subsidies, and there are also to be transitional periods and hardship regulations. The FDP is calling for fundamental improvements.

In the struggle over the heating law, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock backed her Green party colleague Habeck. "When there is a headwind, especially when there is a nasty headwind, it is important to stand together. And that's what Robert and I do," Baerbock told the newspapers of the Funke media group. Habeck has "no reason whatsoever to go into sackcloth and ashes". She added: "When Putin turned off the gas tap to us, he got us through an extremely difficult winter against all odds as vice chancellor and economy minister."

"It is more than clear to me – and even more so to Robert Habeck – how many questions and uncertainty there are about the Heating Act, because people in Germany live very differently and thus also heat," Baerbock said. With regard to the opposition, she added: "What I can't understand at all, however, is that those who just a short time ago couldn't get enough of Russian gas and slept through the energy transition now consider themselves the greatest heating experts."

kev/dpa