August 25, 2022 - 9:30am
In late March, the Green Vice-Chancellor of Germany pleaded with the German people to save energy wherever they could: “Every kilowatt-hour of energy saved helps”, a plea he repeated in June, with a European energy crunch looming.
Apparently Berlin counts on kilowatt-hours, but does not care about terawatt-hours. In 2021 six nuclear power plants produced over 65TW/h, providing no less than 13% of German electricity generated. Three of these plants were closed in early 2022, with the remaining three being phased out in December. Though there have been calls by other European states and by German industry to keep them running, so far the government is not willing to reconsider its original plans.
The coalition government of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals looks out of touch with a voter base that has recently shifted in a dramatically pro-nuclear direction. Several polls have shown that at least 60% of Germans want to postpone the phase-out of nuclear, including a surprising 61% majority among supporters of the Greens.
Contrary to their politicians, it seems as if the average German has a better grasp on the dire economic outlook the country is facing. Next year’s predicted energy prices are breaking records on a daily basis, having reached over EUR 700 per MWh — compared to an average of EUR 45 between 2010 to 2020.
And the problems caused by energy shortages are beginning to spread and are compounded by other problems: France’s nuclear power plants are currently below 50% availability, and wind forecasts are so low that turbines will not be able to fill the gap. Needless to say, all of this is putting additional upward pressure on inflation.
Germany’s powerful labor unions are beginning to price in expected inflation, pushing the economy ever closer to a wage-price spiral. As Holger Zschaepitz reports, harbour workers, for example, have already signed a pay rise of 9% from July 2022, followed by an agreed hike of 4.4% in June 2023, including a special clause that would allow an increase up to 5.5%. German workers are most likely correct in their assessment of coming inflation, which has not yet trickled down to consumers.
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SubscribeConfidence in politicians was very badly damaged after the 2008 financial crash and has never really recovered in most of the West. Germany was probably a rare exception to this, especially when Merkel was at her most influential. However, we can all see that the Emperor was wearing no clothes on that front. For the last 14 years we have been sold out again and again by our governments to line the pockets of the big corporations where the profits are privatised and the losses are socialised. This winter could be the turning point and God knows what might come out the other side.
And here we see one of the major problems:
“Only the Greens appear to be isolated from negative polling trends.”
More ‘tribal politics’; people staying with their tribe no matter what. The German economy could utterly crash and burn and they wouldn’t change their minds.
Franklin, sadly, was being an optimist when he said ‘Experience is a dear master, but fools will learn at no other.’ No, they won’t, actually.
Noel
You can only defy reality for some time…but not forever.
What can’t go on forever, won’t.
I can’t see why the SPD should have to pay the price for policy measures forced on them by Die Grunen.