The gas summit in the Wiesbaden State Chancellery was not meaningless, because the subsequent press conference provided further insights into how the new Prime Minister Boris Rhein (CDU) intends to deal with the Green coalition partner. When asked whether the service lives of the three German nuclear power plants still connected to the grid should be extended, he was initially unreservedly positive. Rhein even used the term “360-degree openness”.
But when asked, he adopted the restrictions that the State Secretary in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Philipp Nimmermann, had formulated from the point of view of the small coalition partner. The Greens initially want to wait for the stress test initiated by the Federal Minister of Economics. If it turns out that a stretching operation of about three to four months makes sense with the existing fuel rods, the party is open to such a solution. However, this does not apply to the purchase of new fuels in order to enable longer additional running times, said Nimmermann. Because the final storage has not been clarified. There are “no differences between the coalition partners” on this question, stressed Rhein.