Habeck announces changes in the gas levy – and blames others

On Thursday evening, the pressure from the opposition, but also from the ranks of the traffic light coalition, was too great: Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) used an appearance at the Westphalian Entrepreneurs' Day in Münster to announce a course correction for the gas levy. If Habeck had repeatedly defended the surcharge in the past few days as virtually without alternative and painted the collapse of large parts of the energy market on the wall as the only other possibility, the regulation introducing the surcharge is now to be changed again.

Habeck wants to reduce the number of companies that can claim money from the gas levy. A total of twelve companies had registered for financial aid from the levy, and eleven wanted to take advantage of it. But by no means all legitimate companies are in existential need. A risk of insolvency was not enshrined as a condition in the regulation.

Until Thursday evening, Habeck had relied on appeals. It is hoped that companies that do not necessarily need the money will give up the money. The Economics Minister no longer wants to rely on this voluntary nature. It will be a long monologue with which the minister has to admit and correct his first serious mistake. It's a typical Habeck statement, full of loops and explanations. Others are said to be to blame for his dilemma, above all the immoral companies that could exploit his ministry's mistake, but also the lawyers who gave him wrong advice.

In principle, one is committed to the legal norm of equality before the law. "I think that's right and fair so far and a legion of lawyers explained it to me in such a way that there can be no other way," says the minister in Münster. A monster of a sentence follows. You can tell how much Habeck struggles to admit the mistake.

"But because we didn't know, it has to be said honestly - and nobody knew that - how this gas market is intertwined, how it is in the opaque, which companies have any shares in subsidiaries and so on, this decision, which was correct in principle, is a problem arose because a few companies pushed their way in that really made a lot of money and didn’t need the population’s levy.”

It is at least a bold statement to say that the companies have “pushed their way in”. No lawyer denies that the twelve companies that have filed claims also have them according to the text of the regulation. Habeck also admits this and goes so far as to make a strange comparison: The companies “have a legal claim for the reasons mentioned, equality before the law,” says the minister.

“I also get child support because I have children, equality before the law. I don't know whether I would need the child benefit, I would also be able to cope with the minister's salary, but there is an equality, you know that, the principle."

Then he realizes on stage during the speech that this is possibly an unfortunate analogy: "And by the way, it's not the same with child benefit, but the higher income earners, you know that too, get a tax credit or a tax exemption that is even higher is,” says Habeck. "But that's not what I wanted to get at."

After all the preamble, he gets to the point: "Nevertheless, of course, we have a political problem, which has spoiled my day a lot for the last 48 hours," he says. "There may be a legally justified claim, we will now take a closer look to see if there is a way to ward off this justified claim." Habeck announces here, somewhat awkwardly, that the federal government will still pass the ordinance on the gas levy want to change once.

However, the minister is far from finished with his explanations of this process: "But it is certainly not morally right for companies that - let me put it in Low German - to earn a pig's money, then also say: Yes, and for them few revenue shortfalls that we have, we ask the population for help, they should also give us money," he says. "Well, all I'm saying is, let's look at that again."

In the traffic light there is a dispute about the gas levy from Economics Minister Habeck. "Only companies that need our support may be supported," says SPD leader Saskia Esken. She demands improvements from Habeck.

However, Habeck believes that such a change, in which the claim is linked to the risk of insolvency, for example, is difficult to implement. “However, there is a relatively high hurdle, I have to put it this way: If we start cheating and it is prone to lawsuits and there will definitely be lawsuits in one direction or the other and the levy will no longer apply, then we will fall back on the problem again that we have: that some of the companies and the citizens have a collapse in the gas supply," says Habeck.

It is again the alleged lack of alternatives with which he has so far rejected changes. "That means: I'm not in a good position, you just have to say that," he regrets to himself. "I'm just trying to be fair, but above all I'm obliged to maintain security of supply in Germany - for better or worse .”

He then talks for a long time about the fact that in a crisis like this one can never fully assert one's values. As a green person, you have to build new liquid gas terminals and bring coal-fired power plants back to the grid. Then he summarizes: "I just want to say: We'll take a very close look at it again to see if we can find a legally secure way to end the improper use of these companies there."