Lindner doesn't think much of the price of industrial electricity

In Berlin, business and politics are eagerly awaiting a new concept from the Ministry of Economics at an industrial electricity price of 5 or 6 cents per kilowatt hour. Actually, State Secretary Patrick Graichen (Greens) wanted to present it this week. But he had "just other things to do," it was said on Tuesday in the government district. The top civil servant and his mentor, Minister Robert Habeck (Greens), are under pressure because Graichen was involved in appointing his best man as the new managing director of the federal company German Energy Agency (DENA).

Christian Geinitz

Business correspondent in Berlin

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A ministry spokeswoman said that work on the electricity price concept continues, and the presentation date is open. Both Green politicians have admitted mistakes in the DENA appointment, the selection process will probably be repeated. This is not enough for the opposition, which has demanded Graichen's dismissal. Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) spoke on Tuesday of an "autocratic, autocratic political style" in the Ministry of Economics. After a meeting with the cabinet of his Bavarian colleague Markus Söder (CSU), Kretschmer said: "We have told Minister Habeck several times that what is happening in his house – and especially in the person of State Secretary Graichen – is something that was completely contrary to the policy of the Federal Republic of Germany in recent decades."

Encouragement from trade unions and countries

A state-subsidized industrial electricity price is controversial, both in government and in business. Although the companies suffered from the high energy costs, the postponement of budget billions does not help, criticized on Tuesday the Association of Family Entrepreneurs. "This is a huge distortion of competition at the expense of small and medium-sized enterprises," said President Marie-Christine Ostermann. The high prices are not least due to high taxes and levies. "It is absurd for the state to first impose more and more burdens on companies and then generously subsidize them again."

Instead of relying on subsidies, it would be more economical to expand the supply of electricity. If, for example, the nuclear power plants continue to operate, tariffs would fall by up to 12 percent, Ostermann said. In the government camp, Habeck and SPD leader Lars Klingbeil had advocated an industrial electricity price, and there were similar advances from trade unions and states. On Tuesday, the head of the chemical trade union IG BCE, Michael Vassiliadis, called for this path to stop emigration.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), however, had said that more cheap electricity had to be produced and transported to the right place. Germany could not sustain "subsidizing everything that takes place in normal economic activity." Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) wrote in the "Handelsblatt" that an industrial electricity price would be unfair in terms of distribution policy because it would be at the expense of others. In addition, the "already tight budget" does not provide this tax aid. Contrary to Klingbeil's suggestion, the Economic and Stabilisation Fund could not be misused for this purpose.