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Economics Minister Habeck is currently on a business trip to Qatar
Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka / dpa
A group of nine traffic light politicians will continue to negotiate over the weekend.
They want to find a compromise on the contentious issue of how citizens can be relieved of the exploding energy prices.
Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck is not part of this group.
From his trip to the Arabian Peninsula, he intervened in the difficult discussions among parliamentarians from the SPD, Greens and FDP.
One had to address "precisely" private individuals and companies that urgently needed support, said Habeck.
In doing so, he indirectly rejects the demand made by FDP leader Christian Lindner.
The Minister of Finance wants to relieve the burden on the citizens with a fuel price brake of more than ten cents per liter at the filling station.
Habeck considers this proposal too expensive.
He wants to relieve the socially disadvantaged and low-income earners with another energy money instead of handing out help to everyone.
In doing so, he risks a dispute with the Liberals.
"A market signal should be maintained for all measures," says Habeck.
As a result, people would consume less natural gas and oil.
Among other things, he mentioned the ban on gas heating as soon as possible and building renovation as instruments.
The introduction of a speed limit of 130 on German autobahns would be much more controversial for motorists.
"Personally, I was always in favor of it, and that has been confirmed in the last few days," said Habeck.
He is alluding to the Ukraine war and dependence on Russian oil, which he wants to reduce.
In the coalition agreement, however, a decision was made against it, said Habeck on the sidelines of the trip to the Emirate of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
According to Habeck, however, reality has caught up with the coalition agreement in many places.
When asked if the speed limit should be brought up again as an issue, he said no one had asked him about it before, and he hadn't raised it either.
However, he did not want to explicitly rule out that the traffic light coalition could discuss it again.
Habeck had spoken to the Qatari rulers in Qatar today about the delivery of liquid gas to Germany.
An energy partnership was agreed that includes both liquid gas supplies and cooperation on renewable energies and efficiency measures.
Habeck will be accompanied during the negotiations by a high-ranking business delegation.
It was once again made clear to him that it was not only necessary to develop new energy sources outside of Russia, but also to pay more attention to efficiency, said the minister.
With consumption, dependency on Russia would automatically decrease.
He saw how many countries want to buy liquefied gas from Qatar.
That is why this trip comes with a clear political mandate to use energy more sparingly.
In addition to a fuel price brake, the negotiations of the traffic light coalition are also about considerations of further increasing the commuter allowance or distributing a socially adapted mobility allowance to the citizens.
The talks, which included the Greens leader Ricarda Lang, the SPD energy expert Matthias Miersch and the FDP colleague Christian Dürr, continued over the weekend.
