Scholz: Germany ‘will go through the winter with courage and strength’, despite Merkel’s policy mistakes

Germany “will go through the winter with courage and vigour” despite the risks of shortages, assured the Olaf Solzlaunching an attack on the energy policy of Angela Merkel’s CDU.

“We are in a situation where we can say that we will get through this winter, despite all the tensions, thanks to the preparations we have made, which no one could have guaranteed three, four, five months ago,” the German chancellor said. before the German parliament, which today began the examination of the 2023 budget.

“We are today in a position to face this winter with courage and fortitude and to ensure that our country makes it through,” the Social Democrat chancellor continued.

Merkel’s successor he is also “convinced that the Germany is able to commit to the path to the future’, having taken ‘important decisions, more important than those taken during the last decades’.

These decisions are bearing fruit, he continued, referring mainly to the number of construction plans for liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals.

Also, natural gas storage levels “exceed 85%” of capacity and are higher compared to the same period last year,” said Olaf Solz, pointing to gas supply deals with France, Belgium and the Netherlands. .

Adopting an aggressive tone, the German chancellor criticized the energy policies of the conservative CDU-CSU governments, which have led to Germany’s over-reliance on natural gas imported from Russia.

The conservative coalition, which was in power from 2005 until 2021, “bears full responsibility for the fact that Germany made the decisions to exit coal and nuclear power, without ever having the power to commit to anything, nor to promote the development of renewable energy imgs, complained Olaf Solz.

“They even waged defensive battles against every wind power plant, and every defensive battle in recent years has hurt Germany,” continued Olaf Scholz, a former finance minister and vice chancellor in Merkel’s last coalition government.

Olaf Solz, whose popularity is falling in opinion polls, accused his political rivals of “hiding the truth that we needed to increase electricity production by 600 to 800 terawatts by the end of the decade” when they were in power.

“It is good that you are in opposition so that we can modernize the industry, so that we can remain competitive and no longer shirk in the face of the country’s problems,” he said, addressing the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Friedrich Merz.