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Christian Lindner: Minister of Finance warns of economic crisis and phase of deprivation

2022-06-21T23:53:32.961Z


The Germans are likely to face a longer phase of deprivation – Finance Minister Christian Lindner fears that. He spoke on ZDF of a “serious economic crisis”.


Enlarge image

Christian Lindner (on June 14)

Photo: ORESTIS PANAGIOTOU / EPA

Rising prices, faltering supply chains, a sluggish economy – current developments, partly as a result of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, give cause for concern.

And there is no improvement in sight.

Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) promises the citizens of Germany a long phase of deprivation.

"My concern is that we could have a very worrying situation in a few weeks and months," said Lindner on Tuesday evening in the ZDF "heute journal".

“It's about three to four, maybe five years of scarcity.

And we have to find an answer for that.« He added: »There is a risk of a very serious economic crisis due to the sharp increase in energy prices, due to supply chain problems, due to inflation.«

It is therefore necessary to talk about all the options, including extended service lives for the three nuclear power plants that are still operational in Germany.

This Wednesday, the heads of the traffic light coalition are discussing possible steps against the price increases, especially for gas and energy, as a result of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.

For a few days now, Russia has been pumping significantly less gas to Germany - according to the Federal Network Agency, the supply situation is therefore tense.

Among other things, this had rekindled the debate about extending the lifetime of nuclear power plants in Germany.

In addition, Lindner warned of a "serious economic crisis" due to high energy prices.

The primary goal must now be to stop inflation.

»Not only because of the economy, but because many people also worry about being able to afford to live.«

FDP wants to stop burner ban

The traffic light coalition argues about how energy security can be guaranteed.

The SPD and the Greens are against fracking and extending the lifetime of nuclear energy.

The FDP, on the other hand, does not want to rule that out

As it became known on Tuesday, the FDP also does not want to agree to the European proposal for a ban on the sale of combustion engines from 2035.

According to Lindner, the “de facto ban on the combustion engine” is not supported and “openness to technology” is considered an essential part of the market economy.

That should cause a dispute with the green coalition partner, who supports such a ban.

(Read more about this in the analysis here.)

It remains to be seen how his party's attitude will affect the minister's popularity ratings.

Because in this respect, things are currently going rather moderately at Lindner.

The current SPIEGEL government monitor shows him in 15th and penultimate place, ahead of Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht.

The finance minister had made it to sixth place in March.

jok/dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-06-21

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