The termination of all remaining nuclear power plants on Saturday marks a “black day” for Germany, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has said.
Friedrich Merz, the leader of the CDU in Germany — the party of former Chancellor Angela Merkel who began the nuclear phaseout during her tenure — has denounced the shutdown of Germany’s remaining three nuclear power plants, describing the decision as going against the country’s energy interest at a time when other nations are relying more and more on nuclear.
Germany’s three remaining nuclear power stations were shut down forever on Saturday, with left-wing parties in the country celebrating the end of fission power generation in the country as a major victory despite the massive gap it will leave in the country’s power grid.
According to a report by Tagesspiegel, a number of members from both the CDU and its sister party, the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), condemned the decision as being against the country’s interests.
Speaking ahead of the closure on Friday, Merz lamented: “Tomorrow is a bad day; it’s a black day for Germany,” going on to attack the government for turning off the power stations when more and more reactors are being built in other parts of the world.
Meanwhile, CSU leader and Prime Minister of Bavaria, Markus Söder, also mourned the loss of the reactors.
“This is a very sad chapter in German energy policy,” he said. “Electricity for ten million households must then be completely reorganized from Sunday.”
Despite the massive energy crisis Germany currently finds itself in as a result of green politics and the war in Ukraine, politicians within the country’s left-wing government have dismissed opposition concerns, insisting that renewables will take up the slack.
“[W]e will have 80 per cent renewable energy by 2030,” Federal Climate Action Minister Robert Habeck insisted, denying the suggestion that there would be electricity supply troubles ahead.
The leader of the country’s green party, Katharina Dröge, even claimed that keeping the plants online would be a waste of taxpayer money, somehow suggesting that citizens will be financially better off with the facilities turned off.
“We’ll end this waste of taxpayers’ money tomorrow. And in doing so, we also create price certainty for people at the same time,” she said.
However, it does not appear that everyday Germans actually believe their government on this issue, with polling this week indicating that 59 per cent of the population think that the state’s nuclear shutdown is a mistake, compared to a mere 34 per cent who view it as a good thing.
Considering how the current energy crisis has hit the pocket of both private households and businesses in Germany, such a result is not all that surprising, with the country narrowly avoiding blackouts last winter partly because of abnormally warm weather.