Status: 08.12.2023, 15:28 PM
CommentsPrint Share
A wind turbine rotates in a wind farm. © Jens Büttner/dpa/Symbolbild
The conditions for red-red-green in the Thuringian state parliament are becoming increasingly rough. The governing coalition was outvoted in the event of a change in the law - without the AfD this would not have been possible.
Erfurt - It has happened again: FDP and CDU have changed a law in Thuringia for the second time together with Björn Höcke's AfD. The three opposition parties pushed through an amendment to the forest law in the state parliament on Friday against the red-red-green minority coalition of Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (Left).
The legally controversial law, which was presented by the FDP, is intended to make it more difficult to build wind turbines in Thuringia's forests. Criticism came, among others, from the German Renewable Energy Association, which spoke of an economic policy aberration. A general ban on wind turbines in Thuringia's forests, which was in force until 2022, had been overturned as unconstitutional by the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe.
The Second Time
The first change in the law, in which the votes of the AfD, which was classified by the Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution as proven right-wing extremist, were decisive, had caused nationwide debates a few weeks ago.
At that time, the CDU, as the largest opposition group in the state parliament in Erfurt, pushed through a reduction of the real estate transfer tax to 5.0 percent together with the FDP and AfD. The CDU had justified its actions by saying that good initiatives could not be prevented just because the AfD was threatening to agree. The Thuringian CDU received backing from the top of the federal party. It is about what is voted on, not with whom, it was said from the CDU parliamentary group after the amendment of the forest law.
Wind turbines only on bare surfaces
Thuringia's Forestry Minister Susanna Karawanskij (Left) said the change in the law would not bring any added value for the protection of forests, but more bureaucracy. Wind turbines should only be built on cleared areas - and not on all of them. A number of energy-intensive companies planned wind turbines for their energy supply.
Environment Minister Bernhard Stengele (Greens) explained: "Anyone who wants to encroach on property rights and block the use of such areas for wind energy for forest owners or Thuringian forestry is not only acting against climate protection, but also against the interests of the economy, the municipalities and the forest owners."
"There is no ban," said FDP group spokesman Thomas Kemmerich. It is a matter of giving priority to reforestation.
0
Read also
0
Christmas terror: 30 Nordmann firs stolen in Sömmerda
READ
"Places of hopelessness" - Greens against repatriation centres
READ3
Greiz district: Payment card for refugees from December
READ
No more citizens' allowance for newly arriving Ukrainian refugees
READ
AfD wants to change the financing of fire brigades
READ
Fancy a voyage of discovery?
My Area
Lots of legal concerns
Green MP Laura Wahl, as well as representatives of the SPD and the Left Party accused the opposition parties of ignoring considerable constitutional concerns. "It would be embarrassing if the Federal Constitutional Court had to find again that the Thuringian state parliament has passed an unconstitutional law," Wahl said. Markus Gleichmann, a member of parliament for the Left Party, said that the FDP and CDU had acted in the knowledge that it could only be implemented together with the AfD.
Criticism also came from companies, organizations and institutions that are committed to the expansion of renewable energies. A majority of the state parliament had deliberately opposed an unambiguous ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court", explained the German Renewable Energy Association. "With the decision, the Thuringian economy loses an important option to embark on the path of decarbonization on its own."
The CDU has been opposed to the construction of wind turbines in forest areas for years. In addition to its approval of the Liberals' amendment to the law, it submitted a motion to the state parliament calling on the government to completely ban wind turbines in forest areas. The FDP did not support this, but support came from the AfD. Dpa