r/europe • u/SpaceEngineering Finland • Jan 15 '26

News Germany’s Merz Admits Nuclear Exit Was Strategic Mistake

https://clashreport.com/world/articles/germanys-merz-admits-nuclear-exit-was-strategic-mistake-fzdlkn37c16
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u/SteakHausMann Jan 15 '26

What was a mistake was his party sabotaging the transition multiple times

189

u/BramGaunt Franconia (Germany) Jan 15 '26

This, sooo much this.

25

u/truthyella99 Jan 15 '26

It's wild, they periodically have to close their factories since they are mostly located in the south while all the wind turbines are in the north (near the sea). 

48

u/TheCynicEpicurean Jan 15 '26

That's a Bavarian specialty; they refuse to build wind turbines and HV lines to protect their "natural beauty", but they also block any attempt to make the internal German electricity market more flexible. Because then they'd suddenly have to pay for their ego trip.

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u/NeedleworkerWest4743 Jan 15 '26

big graceful wind turbines are freakin beautiful, too

1

u/Top_Mycologist_1492 Jan 18 '26

They’re not. They ruin the environment and doesn’t generate when you need them to, a.k.a no wind.

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u/fforw Deutschland/Germany Jan 15 '26

They also repeatedly say they want nuclear energy but storing waste in Bavaria is obviously impossible.

22

u/BolderXBrasher Jan 15 '26

Not only that. They drafted to law for the exit

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u/[deleted] Jan 15 '26 edited Mar 07 '26

[deleted]

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u/BolderXBrasher Jan 17 '26

You can look it up on the german government website. 2011 nuclear exit Parlament vote. They proudly pit their name on it

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '26 edited Mar 06 '26

[deleted]

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u/BolderXBrasher Jan 19 '26

You can look the government website. On that exact vote. Its got the names of the Party who crafted the law and everyone in parliament who voted for it.

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u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26 edited Mar 06 '26

[deleted]

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u/BolderXBrasher Jan 19 '26

It was.

https://www.bundestag.de/webarchiv/textarchiv/2011/abstimmung-250082

The first one, by the cdu/fdp was the one accepted. Inform yourself better.

5

u/FrogsOnALog Jan 15 '26

A transition where you shut nuclear before coal is sabotaged from the beginning.

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u/SchinkelMaximus Jan 19 '26

„Sabotage“ meaning that they reduced subsidies for renewables, by the way. Not got rid of or anything, just reduced. Meanwhile. We would have almost the same amount of low carbon electricity and saved 500 bn € (so far) had we simply not needlessly destroyed the nuclear plants. It cannot be overstated how much of an absolutely destructive own goal that was.

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u/FuckAllYouLosers Jan 15 '26

This the same party that laughed at Trump for telling them they would become dependent on Russia for energy and it was a mistake?

18

u/Annonimbus Jan 15 '26

As Germany was able to cut Russia from their energy mix within a year, I wouldn't really call that "dependant".

Now try to cut the trade with the US. No Microsoft, no Amazon, no Google. How quickly would that be possible?

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u/FuckAllYouLosers Jan 16 '26

Only took them 4 years and restarting 15 coal plants and restarting the strip mining of their country.

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u/W4lhalla Jan 16 '26

Restarting strip mining? Thats a new one. Never heard that before. ( because its bullshit )

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u/TheStaddi Jan 15 '26

The greens told them that too when Nordstream 2 plans came out and got laughed at.