The parliamentary secretary of the Green parliamentary group, Irene Mihalic, has sharply criticized the FDP in the coalition's internal dispute over the Building Energy Act (GEG). It was "irresponsible" of the liberals to block the parliamentary procedure, Mihalic said on Wednesday in Berlin. The FDP is currently behaving "like an opposition with ministerial offices" and is not sticking to agreements. This would damage the "government's ability to act".

In the talks on the agenda of the Bundestag for this week, the FDP had refused to include the GEG, and recently reaffirmed this position. According to agreements of the coalition committee, the bill should be passed before the summer break. Time is now running out for this.

Mihalic accused the FDP of not being concerned with substantive issues surrounding the GEG. These could be clarified in the parliamentary procedure, she said. The FDP is only concerned with "stopping an important law". In a coalition, however, agreements would also have to be kept. "This reliability is currently not given by the FDP."

The GEG employs many citizens and they need planning security, Mihalic warned. She expects the GEG to be on the agenda of the Bundestag in the next session week from 12 June. According to Mihalic, the vice-chairmen of the traffic light parliamentary group will try to make progress on the issue in the course of this week. There is no date for this yet.

Basically, Mihalic was confident. She expects the law to be passed before the summer break. She also sees "no government crisis" at the moment. However, if the FDP "continues like this," it is heading in this direction, Mihalic warned. She called on the liberals to be "constructive".

The draft for the GEG stipulates that from 2024 onwards, as a rule, only new heating systems that are powered by at least 65 percent renewable energies will be installed. Comprehensive support programmes are intended to cushion this socially.

Mützenich does not want to speak of "breaking his word"

The SPD remains cautious in the dispute. SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich does not want to adopt the accusation of Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) to the FDP that it has committed a "breach of word" because of the delays in the heating law. "Whether this is a breach of word, I would not see it that way, but in the end it depends on the evaluation whether we pass the law in the German Bundestag," he said on Tuesday evening on ZDF. Habeck had referred to the agreement reached by representatives of the SPD, Greens and FDP in the coalition committee at the end of March.

This Wednesday, the Bundestag will deal with the Heating Act in a Current Hour. The debate is "urgently needed," said the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, which rejects the project and has therefore requested the current hour.

The parliamentary secretary of the SPD parliamentary group, Katja Mast, considers the law to be passed in the Bundestag before the summer recess. With a "constructive attitude" of the traffic light partners, this could be achieved by the beginning of the parliamentary summer break, Mast said on Wednesday on Deutschlandfunk. Until then, there are still a good six weeks for a proper parliamentary deliberation. People should not be left in uncertainty for too long, Mast warned. She pointed out that in the current week, specialist politicians and also the deputy group leaders are still exchanging views on the topic.

The FDP politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann had said on Tuesday evening in the ARD "Tagesthemen", however, that the law could not be passed before the summer break from her point of view. It is clear that the traffic light wants a different kind of climate protection. But you have to "take the people in Germany with you, because otherwise the acceptance is not there". It is not good "to bring a law on hell come out on the way and to fix it on a date," said the FDP politician.

Meanwhile, according to a media report, Construction Minister Klara Geywitz (SPD) and Economics Minister Habeck want to oblige the federal states and municipalities to submit binding plans for climate-neutral heating networks. As the "Bild" newspaper reports, citing a corresponding draft law of the Ministry of Construction, Geywitz and Habeck call on the municipalities, among other things, to determine numerous data on energy consumption and the condition of each individual building.

The data will then be used to create heat plans to ensure a climate-neutral heat supply in Germany by 2045 at the latest. The cabinet should pass the law before the summer break. Large cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants are to draw up corresponding "heat plans" by the end of 2026 at the latest. Smaller cities and districts (up to 100,000 inhabitants) have until the end of 2028.

Thuringia's CDU leader Mario Voigt (46) sharply criticizes the project. He told the "Bild" newspaper: "Habeck's heating mania must be put to a stop sign." The minister ignores the massive worries and fears of the citizens. "Now he wants to use the energy Stasi to look into people's boiler rooms like in a snooping state."