“We need a Green Deal for Germany” – Bavarian CSU head Söder

Germany needs to do more on climate, Markus Söder, leader of the Bavarian conservative CSU and potential chancellor candidate in this year’s national election, told Spiegel in an interview. “We need a Green Deal for Germany,” said the head of the CSU, which is the sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU). This Green Deal had to include central instruments such as a market-ecological tax reform with a market-driven CO2 price and lower taxes and levies for electricity and renewables. A renewed push for renewables expansion is necessary and should include mandatory solar PV installations on new and government buildings, and alongside the country’s famed Autobahn, said Söder. He called on fellow conservatives to make climate action their “basic philosophy”, as it was the central challenge of our time.

Germany’s ruling conservatives and the Greens are about to kick off the 2021 national election race in earnest by naming their respective leading candidates to take over the helm of Europe’s biggest economy in autumn. While the country has firmly set sail for climate neutrality by 2050, the camps’ choices could prove critical for the speed of the energy transition in this decade. Engulfed by a lobbying scandal and accused of mishandling the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU/CSU alliance has plummeted in the polls and lost what looked like a guaranteed pole position for the chancellery. It must make the difficult choice between the natural candidate – Armin Laschet, leader of the bigger partner CDU – and much more popular Bavarian CSU head Markus Söder.