BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has defended the decisions made in 2022 in the Bundestag's committee of inquiry into the nuclear phase-out. The phase-out of nuclear power was the right thing to do, Scholz said. Extending the operating life of nuclear power plants by several years would have been "against the consensus" of previous years and previous federal governments, the chancellor emphasized.

At the same time, he said, in October 2022, after a call with the operators of nuclear power plants and the two ministers of finance and economics, he came to the conclusion that the "most sensible solution" was to allow the nuclear power plants to continue operating until mid-April 2023. "My goal was to ensure the security of the energy supply under all circumstances," said Scholz. Therefore, the aim of both the environment and the economy Ministry at the time was to examine the continued use of nuclear power plants "with an open mind".

The Union, AfD and FDP in particular have doubts about this open-ended review. Both Environment Minister Steffi Lemke and Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (both Greens) accuse her of not examining longer lifetimes of nuclear power plants "impartially", but of deciding them based on ideology. This is a central subject of the committee of inquiry, which began its work in the summer of 2024.

Scholz: Without a word of power, it would not have worked

The last three nuclear power plants ultimately ran a few months longer than originally planned – the nuclear phase-out was postponed from December 31, 2022 to April 15, 2023. After a dispute within the coalition government at the time, a power word from Chancellor Scholz in mid-October 2022 was necessary for this decision. To force a decision, Scholz exercised his authority to set the government's policy direction – an instrument last used by former Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in 1957.

Scholz emphasized that it would not have been possible to find a solution without this intervention. Otherwise, there would have been no agreement with either Habeck or the then Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) in what was a very serious situation for Germany, with the potential shortage of energy supplies, said Scholz. He had realized: "I have to take the responsibility for this." He had informed both ministers in advance of the decision.

Previously, Habeck had stated during his questioning that he was not sure whether Chancellor Scholz had informed him of this decision.

FDP calls Habeck "untrustworthy" - Habeck senses an agenda

FDP politician Frank Schäffler called Habeck's memory lapses "unbelievable." Even after almost nine hours of questioning, the minister had not succeeded in showing that his ministry had examined the nuclear phase-out with an open mind. CSU politician Andreas Lenz was similarly critical. He also stuck to the Union's accusation after the questioning that instead of an open-ended examination, there had been a "large-scale deception".

Habeck, in turn, accused the committee of pursuing an agenda and not being primarily interested in insights for decision-making. "If the committee is used to fuel this pro-nuclear debate, I believe that would be inappropriate," said Habeck after his questioning. Overall, however, he felt he was treated fairly.