The Thuringian dispute about wind turbine distances is facing a possible solution. According to a government spokesman in Erfurt, Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left) and CDU parliamentary group leader Mario Voigt agreed on Wednesday on a compromise that is now to be discussed in the state parliament in July. Voigt spoke of a breakthrough in the conflict. Ramelow promised him to promote the one-thousand-meter distance rule in the red-red-green minority government.
The CDU wanted to submit a motion in the state parliament for a minimum distance of one thousand meters between wind turbines and residential buildings and could have gotten this through with votes from the AfD. The application will not be decided at Wednesday’s meeting.
A government spokesman said that the agreement between Ramelow and Voigt provides for an opening clause based on the Brandenburg model, which allows an adjustment to future federal law. In addition, a repowering of existing systems – i.e. their modernization and increase in capacity – was agreed.
The agreements are now to be coordinated with the relevant ministries so that they can then be discussed in the state parliament in mid-July, said the government spokesman. CDU parliamentary group leader Voigt said he was “glad that there was a breakthrough”.
However, approval of the agreements does not appear to be secured within the red-red-green minority government. Green parliamentary group leader Astrid Rothe-Beinlich said: “We are welcome to negotiate with each other, but we do not approve of this bill.”
According to CDU parliamentary group leader Voigt, the agreement with Ramelow also includes the CDU’s demand for exemption from school fees for healthcare professions, which costs 1.8 million euros. According to the government spokesman and Voigt, there should also be a plan for decarbonizing the glass industry in southern Thuringia. Ramelow will hold a video conference with the glass industry on Thursday evening, the spokesman said.
The possible support of the AfD in Thuringia for the wind turbine demands of the CDU had also triggered a nationwide debate. Several federal politicians called for the CDU federal chairman Friedrich Merz to intervene.
Merz said on Tuesday evening on the ZDF program “Markus Lanz” that he hoped there would be a solution without the AfD. However, the CDU cannot make every application that it considers correct in terms of content dependent on whether the AfD agrees or not.
