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Dirty dealing in Germany’s politics

Publisher Karl-Heinz Remmers looks at dirty dealing in the CDU/FDP coalition government in Berlin, and asks if it marks the end of the German photovoltaic industry.

At some point, everyone has heard about so-called dirty deals in politics. It usually looks like this: A coalition partner, or groups within the respective parties, have something to gain, for which they actually have no internal majority at all – or which is completely destructive, even for their own government.

At the same time, the government urgently needs the approval of every delegate in a completely different, and maybe even very important, matter for the country. Now back to the dirty deal: The boisterous minority is able to obtain a completely absurd decision.

In the year 2012, the German photovoltaics industry could be completely undermined by the current constellation in a severely ailing government, if the fringe groups succeed in their demand for a one gigawatt ceiling in Germany. And the leaders in both the CDU and the FDP, who are notorious for their strange decisions, for example, extension of the periods for which a reactor is allowed to operate against the will of the people and subsequent shutdown of the same nuclear power plants overnight. Thus it is imperative to reveal and unmask what is happening, otherwise a key technology will be lost.

Although the FDP leadership currently takes a tough position against the photovoltaics industry, despite overwhelming approval for the technology within the party itself, and where the German Federal Minister of Economics and Technology urgently demands more competition between renewable energies, photovoltaic technology is quite respected among the leadership of the CDU/CSU. This has also developed a broad base of supporters among its foot soldiers, alongside professed enemies of solar technology. This has proven to be unbearable to these solar enemies and now they have it in for the still unloved offspring of the SPD and Green Party, since they have only succeeded in ruining things in small steps and, above all, thoroughly sullying sentiments.

The most serious enemies of the solar industry are found in the business wing of the CDU. In particular, Dr’s Joachim Pfeiffer, Michael Fuchs and Thomas Bareiß are attempting to make a name for themselves at the expense of photovoltaics. Their arguments with regard to the costs and efficiency have been repeated like a mantra for years, and now they have also discovered the spurious argument of possible blackouts caused by too much solar electricity. The three gentlemen are experiencing a bad period. Gnashing their teeth and against their deepest conviction, they had to vote to abandon nuclear power and currently have to behave as though they also advocate the change in energy policy.

The ongoing rescue programs for the euro are also a real thorn in the side of these gentlemen and their business wing in the CDU. A terrible thorn in fact. And this is only topped by a Chancellor who has jettisoned all of her buddies like Günther Oettinger, Roland Koch, Friedrich Merz, and company.

And things are even worse: now the CDU boss is even demanding a minimum wage. At the same time, Minister of the Environment, Norbert Röttgen stands alone like the radiant victor. And what’s more, Röttgen is perceived as a potential successor to Angela Merkel, which is why Röttgen is considered in many parts of this wing as a personal arch enemy who has to be fought.

And how does one go about doing this? One destroys the political castle of the opponent without any consideration whatsoever for the public interest. Thus in our case, the Renewable Energy Act [EEG], and above all, the photovoltaic technologies that are still immensely popular among the population. If Röttgen’s renewable energies plaything is broken, then he will be weakened in the view of these venerable old gentlemen. Wham!

And Angela Merkel? At the moment, she is quite capable of being coerced by minorities, because she needs every support in order to rescue the euro, come hell or high water. And thus the gray gentlemen feel that their hour has come. The chairman of the FDP Philipp Rösler, whom they otherwise no longer take seriously, is spineless in any case and takes the same line. As long as it is directed against this green stuff, because they are all enemies of the party.

An original quotation after a visit to the FDP party congress reads, "As long as I see their wind turbines on election posters with Jürgen Trittin, I don’t care about anything - they have to go." The story comes from the party congress in Cologne in 2005, and today is called photovoltaics instead of wind (so long as offshore wind is far away). However, the view has remained dangerously blinkered.

It must be clear to the entire renewable energy industry that the change in energy policy developed only from opportunism, and not out of conviction. And it never would have come about if not for the elections in Baden-Württemberg two weeks after Fukushima. And had the election not been lost by the CDU/FDP, then there also would not have been a change in energy policy. Thus, the government has no conviction and no really distinguished political specialists. The good work on energy carried out by numerous individuals has unfortunately yet to reach the top. Hence, the continued demand for a ceiling for the successful photovoltaics industry and, thus, the demise of large parts of companies and the more than 100,000 jobs that already severely suffered in 2011.

If anyone from the Chinese government got wind of this, they would surely think the translator was drunk. Or they would laugh themselves silly, because there could not be a simpler way to win a technology race.

And so to prevent a dark cloud from settling on the photovoltaics industry in Germany, as a result of such dirty dealing, this scandal must be revealed on the broadest possible front with all of its dishonest participants, their perfidious dissemination of falsehoods and agitators in the public, but also in the parties of the CDU/CSU and FDP. Use every channel, local and national.