The SPD has rejected the demands of the coalition partner FDP to secure the energy supply. SPD leader Lars Klingbeil said on Monday after the deliberations of the SPD’s top committees in Berlin that there would be no extension of the lifespan of nuclear power plants or a return to fracking in Germany. “It’s no use bringing technologies from the past back into play now,” said Klingbeil. These demands would “find no support in social democracy”.

In view of the SPD’s insistence on a return to the debt brake in the coming year, Klingbeil now sees the FDP leader and Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner as responsible. “I assume that the finance minister has clever ideas about how we can get the high level of investment that has been agreed and the social projects and the issues of the current time together,” said the SPD chairman.

Klingbeil did not want to join calls for a renewed suspension of the debt brake. “I will not publicly speculate on what relief is still necessary,” he said. “We have to put our heads together in the coalition.”