SPD chairwoman Saskia Esken reacted sharply to Andreas Scheuer's negative comments on a speed limit debate. "I can understand that Minister of Transport Scheuer is trying to produce news beyond the toll debacle," said Esken. But Scheuer was "not in the position to regulate the affairs of the coalition alone".
At its party congress in early December, the SPD decided on a general speed limit of 130 kilometers per hour as one of the topics for additional projects that are now to be discussed with the Union. Esken now defended the position again. "A speed limit on our motorways is good for climate protection, is for safety and is easy on the nerves of drivers. And that's why we will talk about it again in the new year," said the SPD co-boss. Outside Germany, a speed limit is the norm. "Only the CSU makes such an incomprehensible bohei out of it."
Scheuer had previously spoken out against a new debate within the grand coalition about a general top speed on motorways. "We have far more outstanding tasks than putting this highly emotional topic over and over again in the shop window - for which there are no majorities," said the CSU politician. There is a working system of the directional speed, around a third of the motorways have speed limits and most accidents happen on country roads, said Scheuer.
70 percent of the motorway network without speed limits
Another argument from the Minister of Transport: It was only in October that the Greens in the Bundestag failed to push for the introduction of 130 km / h - clearly with 126 votes to 498 votes against. At that time, most of the SPD MPs had voted against it, as is customary in coalitions for opposition proposals. Back then, SPD politicians made it clear that the topic should be put back on the agenda in discussions about more traffic safety in the new year.
70 percent of the German motorway network still has a clear road. On the other hand, there are only permanent or temporary restrictions with signs on 20.8 percent of the network, as current data from the Federal Highway Research Institute for 2015 show. There are also variable traffic control displays. By contrast, everywhere else in the EU there are general speed limits.