71 per cent of Germans want to see the country continue to use nuclear power despite government efforts to see the source phased out, research has shown.
A study done by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation has found that a significant majority of Germans want the country to keep using nuclear power. The findings come as other sources of power have surged in price and proven unreliable.
This is despite repeated efforts by the country’s leftist governments to abolish nuclear power in the country, with authorities continuing to push for the state’s final three plants to be decommissioned in April despite the ongoing energy crisis. The decision to phase out German nuclear goes back to the Fukushima event in 2011, when Berlin decided having nuclear was too risky, despite its obvious green, zero-carbon credentials.
However, such politics do not appear to be held by the general public in the country, with an overwhelming 71 per cent of people saying that they want to see the resource continue to be used.
By contrast, Bild reports that only 29 per cent of people are said to agree with the government’s aim to see nuclear phased out.
“The Germans want the nuclear power plants to continue,” one politician within the ruling Free Democratic Party, Michael Kruse, remarked. “We should make that possible. The climate will thank us for it.”
Another politician, opposition MP Mark Helfrich, hailed the study as showing that “a social minority is forcing its ideological course on the majority” with the push to see the remaining power plants closed.
The research represents the latest obstacle to the green agenda desires of Germany’s leftist government, which has now repeatedly come under both national and international criticism over its desire to see nuclear power plants closed.
Despite facing an energy crisis that threatens to cripple the country’s industrial sector and the economy as a whole, many politicians within the ruling “traffic light” coalition remain adamant that nuclear power must be phased out as soon as possible.
In fact, the country’s plans to see the three remaining nuclear plants turned off by the end of 2022 only ended up falling through after major pro-green agenda figureheads ridiculed the proposal, with even Swedish activist Greta Thunberg urging for Germany to keep the plants running.
Now, the extended deadline of April appears to be under threat, with many within Germany pushing for the use of at least some of the nuclear power plants to be extended even further.
“As of now, one has to assume that we will also need nuclear energy in the coming winter,” Andreas Jung, the deputy chairman of the Christian Democratic Union — former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party — remarked.
“The experts warn that the coming winter could be even more critical than this one,” he went on to say.
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