Hambeck: Germans may see four-digit energy bills

Consumers risk facing even four-digit amounts on their energy bills in the coming months, said the Minister of Economy Robert Hambeck and admitted that this could lead to social breakdown – “although that should not happen”.

In an interview he gave on the youth TV station Funk of ARD and ZDF, Mr Habeck said his party, the Greens, “are doing everything well, but they should have a little more patience”, he said he sleeps an average of six hours, but when he has a government committee he doesn’t sleep at all and estimated that the most important problem of young people in Germany is climate change. If he could keep anything from his life before politics, it would be anonymity, he said, and he singled out political communication as the worst part of his job.

“On average, consumers have to wait for a kilowatt-hour price increase of 30 to 60 cents, but if we are good and revise the system, maybe the situation will be better. With natural gas, the situation is more complicated, we are threatened with a tripling or even quadrupling of costs,” said Mr. Habeck and admitted that this could cause social disintegration. “A lot of people are angry about the gas levy,” he said, and, in response to a question about young people’s disenchantment with the government’s climate policy, asked for patience until the end of the legislative term, as now, he said, the discussion about the crisis dominates. Even keeping the lignite plants in operation, Mr. Hambeck called it “a mistake from a climate policy perspective, but necessary” because of the conditions. “If we survive this winter, there is a good chance that in the summer and next winter the situation in Germany will be much easier,” he added.

Answering questions about Ukraine, Mr. Hambek again came out in favor of handing over heavy weapons. “I cannot understand how we can say that the Ukrainians are fighting for freedom in Europe and leave them alone,” he said characteristically and emphasized that Germany’s military and economic support will continue.

Asked why young people should look to the future with optimism despite the crisis, the economy minister referred to “dictators like Vladimir Putin, who will not fall with elections, but will be overthrown and that is why they are afraid”. The opposite is our system, he noted, democracy, in which one must be active, participate, vote. “Sometimes it doesn’t go well. But on the one hand we have a system in which fear dominates and on the other a system in which there is courage and hope for the future”, he concluded.

RES-EMP

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