Merz sees "double botches" of the traffic lights and taunts Green boss Nouripour: "That's not funny"

Created: 09/30/2022, 11:47 am

From left: Omid Nouripour, Christian Lindner, Maybrit Illner, Friedrich Merz, Eva Quadbeck, Katja Gloger.

© Svea Pietschmann/ZDF

Finance Minister Lindner speaks of an "energy war".

CDU leader Merz warns of a possible "double botch" and taunts the Greens.

Berlin – 200 billion euros in special funds for the “double boom”, according to Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

In addition to the 100 billion special funds already decided for the "turn of the era" to upgrade the Bundeswehr, the next measure is now to follow in what Finance Minister Christian Lindner calls the "energy war".

The new loans are to be used primarily to stabilize energy market prices and advance renewable energy options.

Lindner, who briefly agreed to Maybrit Illner's current ZDF talk show under the critical title "War and crisis - is Germany overwhelmed?" his "personal quirk" but was anchored "in the constitution".

Lindner: "I am the asset manager of the citizens, and every billion debts hurts me because we pay higher interest on them."

"Maybrit Illner" - these guests discussed with:

• Christian Lindner (FDP)

  - Federal Minister of Finance

• Omid Nouripour (B'90 / The Greens)

  - Party leader

• Friedrich Merz (CDU)

  - party leader, parliamentary group leader

• Eva Quadbeck -

  deputy editor-in-chief and head of the capital city

  office RND

• Katja Gloger -

  former Washington and Moscow correspondent

  Stern

Friedrich Merz, who sits opposite Lindner at the talk table, shows understanding from the opposition corner for the extraordinary situation in which the government finds itself, but does not want to hide the high risk that these expenses entail.

Merz illustrates the situation with a parable from surgery: "It's an open-heart operation without anesthesia" and it's "highly risky," says Merz.

Moderator Maybrit Illner in conversation with CDU leader Friedrich Merz.

© Svea Pietschmann/ZDF

The gigantic debts are currently being imposed on the "children" who have to pay off the federal loans that have now been taken out.

Lindner does not dismiss this out of hand: "Every billion that we take in is paid back by the viewers, the children, the grandchildren with interest and principal," he underpins Merz's objection.

And argues the other way around: "Without the defense shield, the debt brake could not be maintained next year," says Lindner.

According to Lindner, it is now a necessary "signal" to the "capital markets" that Germany is still on a "course of stability".

Merz has to laugh at the gas levy, Green leader Nouripur finds it “not funny”

Merz cannot hide his glee in relation to the bursting of the “gas surcharge”, which he had previously sharply criticized and which is now off the table.

When moderator Illner confronted the Green boss Nouripour, he visibly got into trouble and evaded: "We can now talk the entire program about whether the allocation made sense," he begins and Merz audibly laughs up his sleeve.

When Merz starts to giggle again elsewhere, Günen chairman Omid Nouripour bursts out: "That's not funny." The CDU man composed himself quickly and only referred to the bureaucratic "nuisance" that the allocation caused energy companies: It had to be calculated and delivered to millions of users in order to create letters for withdrawal again.

Nouripour looks sheepish: "It makes more sense to look ahead now," he says.

It was necessary to "save" the gas supply system in Germany.

Lindner is in favor of extending the life of five nuclear power plants

Merz criticizes the lack of explanation of the instruments and implementation of the new laws: "Now we hear about 200 billion euros and a 'double boom', without us knowing what it's all about.

Capping gas prices is one thing, capping electricity prices is something completely different.

One can only hope that this doesn't turn into a 'double botch',” said the leader of the opposition.

"We now know the price tag, but we don't know the product."

And he goes on to criticize that the way it was designed didn't give people the important incentive to save or the requirements: "The population outside has the feeling, okay, there are now 200 billion euros, and now we've solved the problem," he said Merz.

“But we are a long way from solving the problem.” On the contrary, we are at the very beginning.

Lindner doesn't have much to counter that.

The chance profits from coal or wind power are to be decoupled from the high gas prices in the future.

Lindner: "We want to skim that off and leave it in the system." He also describes the attitude of the FDP on the nuclear power issue: "All three nuclear power plants that we have throughout the crisis, and the two that are not currently on network could be activated," said the party leader, but admitted that there was still "dissent" when it came to "nuclear power".

Merz feels confirmed: "The gas price brake is an invention of ours," he says and is convinced that the Union could have done it "technically better".

Lindner cannot rule out a nuclear attack by the Russian side

Eva Quadbeck, deputy editor-in-chief at RND, criticizes the government for wasting too much time on disputes.

While the "loss of prosperity" had already reached the "citizens and companies", the coalition members had entrenched themselves in "party-political wagon camps".

Christian Lindner becomes emotional at this accusation: One has to deal with "one of the most serious" and an "unprecedented crisis" that has existed since the Federal Republic came into existence.

“Party politics and surveys” are not effective now, Lindner said frankly.

He sends a dramatic appeal: "It's about saving the substance of our country in the long term."

Former Moscow correspondent Katja Gloger sees the attacks on the Baltic Sea pipelines Nord Stream 1 and 2, which mean the ultimate end for energy supplies from Russia, as a symbol of the end of an era of economic relations with Russia.

She paints the next devil on the wall: "Putin is blackmailing us with nuclear weapons." Christian Lindner cannot rule out this danger either, appealing to the cohesion of the West: "Putin's calculations cannot and must not work, that would be a risk for global security.

It would also be a disaster for the values ​​of multilateralism and democracy.”

more on the subject

What if Putin loses?

This is how experts assess the danger of a nuclear strike

Conclusion of the "Maybrit Illner" talk

Friedrich Merz can see something humorous about the crisis.

In the show he has to laugh several times, which almost seemed like compensation.

Lindner expressed how desperate the situation is.

Merz made it clear that taking on debt is not automatically a solution, but can also make the situation worse.