A senior EU commissioner has once again told Germany to delay shutting down its nuclear power stations as the climate-crazy government sees its popularity fade.
Germany has been warned by a senior official within the EU that it should delay shutting down its nuclear power stations in order to better cushion the ongoing energy crisis, despite the country’s leftist government insisting that the last three facilities be decommissioned by the end of the year as planned.
The EU demand comes as the climate-crazy coalition sees its popularity plummet, the general population seemingly unhappy with the government’s efforts to stave off the ongoing energy crisis threatening to plunge Germany into a deep economic recession.
It appears however that certain elements within the European Union are getting impatient with the central European state, with the EU Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, putting even more pressure on Germany to keep nuclear in the loop during an interview with business newspaper Handelsblatt.
“It is extremely important to let the three German nuclear power plants that are still in operation run longer,” the publication reports Breton as saying.
While the European mandarin insisted that EU member states have a right to decide their own energy policy, he appeared adamant that keeping the three remaining nuclear plants online was the right move.
“These reactors play an important role in power supply,” he continued. “It is in Europe’s general interest because we are all connected. We can’t say I don’t do what I could do but expect others to provide what I need. That’s not how it works.”
“The aim is to avert an energy shortage in winter,” Breton went on to say. “Even with things we don’t like, like nuclear power and coal-fired power.”
Although some action has been taken by German politicians to avoid an energy crisis in the coming months, the climate-crazy country’s addiction to imported Russian gas has proved difficult to shift, with the country’s economic minister repeatedly warning that he might have to kill German industry to supply homes during the winter.
The issue of how to pay for the little gas the country can still buy also remains up in the air, with authorities talking about splitting the costs between various energy companies — some of whom have gained as a result of hiked prices — and the general public.
Such a move could even include the bailing out of floundering gas giant Uniper, which — due to the fact most of its supply is originally sourced from Russia — has found itself circling the drain of financial distress.
While it remains to be seen whether such action will be enough to avoid the worst of the ongoing energy shortage, it does appear that the leftist coalition has not done enough to avert the wrath of the general public.
In polling published on Monday, it was revealed that the coalition’s cumulative popularity dropped below the 50 per cent mark, with the opposition Christlich Demokratische Union (CDU) meanwhile pulling away to become by far the most popular party in Germany at 28 per cent.
The country’s leftist Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has also seen his popularity tank, with Monday’s poll indicating that he has fallen behind even the likes of local North-Rhine Westphalia leader Hendrik Wüst (CDU) in terms of public appeal.