With the double exit from nuclear power and coal, energy is now becoming a luxury good.
So the pressure of suffering could soon increase in order to correct the mistake of Merkel's experiment.
A comment by Georg Anastasiadis.
After ten years of sweet dreams in the energy-political cloud-cuckoo country, Germany is experiencing a rude awakening: The prices for electricity and fuel are rising dramatically, normal earners fear they will no longer be able to pay their bills, Putin is rubbing his hands and the chief economist of the medium-sized economy is forecasting that Germany is staggering from the Corona crisis directly into an economic crisis that threatens prosperity. And things can get worse, warns ex-BASF boss Jürgen Hambrecht, who was a member of Merkel's ethics committee on the nuclear phase-out: On cold, windless winter nights, citizens were threatened with electricity blackouts, by the end of 2022 at the latest when the last six nuclear reactors were switched off. France's President has already indicatedthat he does not intend to supply Germany with cheap French nuclear power indefinitely.
Germans are now experiencing consequences of the experiment by physicist Angela Merkel
The Germans can now study the consequences of the experiment that physicist Angela Merkel carried out on living objects with the double exit from nuclear power and coal.
Since then, renewables have not been expanded as promised, nor have the power lines built, which were the basis of the ethics committee's nuclear phase-out recommendation, complains Hambrecht.
Moreover, in 2011 it was not foreseeable that the nuclear phase-out would be followed very quickly by the coal phase-out to save the climate.
Nuclear power is now missing everywhere for decarbonisation, for example for the production of Co2-neutral hydrogen.
In the explorations of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP, the extension of the nuclear power plants was not an issue.
Politicians are still not suffering enough to correct the mistake made in 2011;
Instead, the debate is directed towards a reduction in energy taxes - which is expensive for the stiff state.
That could of course still change when it dawns on future Chancellor Olaf Scholz that his respect party SPD is risking German yellow vest protests, when energy becomes a luxury good and large numbers of corporations are relocating jobs to energy-safe countries abroad.