"The draft law was deliberately leaked to damage trust in the government"

Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) spoke to the forthcoming coalition committee about the state of the traffic light coalition and criticized the current performance of the federal government. "We have an order to do something for the people, for Germany and at the moment we are not doing enough enough," said the Green politician on Tuesday evening in the ARD "Tagesthemen".

He hopes “that we can untie many knots and overcome many blockages this week. And then get a really good track record again. But that is certainly not the case at the moment.” One cannot “pretend that things are being processed quickly at the moment”, although in his opinion they are ready for a decision and finished, said Habeck.

At the same time, Habeck criticized the fact that a draft law on heating replacement had been pushed through to the press at an early stage. "We have early coordination in the government, which means that only a few people get the bills so that you look at them and say: Listen, we still need to talk about that, you can't put that in the departmental vote." Nothing has ever been pushed through been.

"Here the draft law to the "Bild" newspaper - and I must therefore assume - was deliberately leaked in order to damage trust in the government." In this respect, talks between the coalition partners "were probably destroyed on purpose, because of the cheap tactical advantage “. Since something like this doesn't happen by accident, he is "a bit alarmed whether there is any willingness to agree at all".

This has damaged confidence in the government. "And a government that gambles away trust has of course lost its biggest pound," said Habeck. He assumes that this can be put together again at the coalition committee next Sunday. "The cooperation in the cabinet is impeccable, we can discuss things calmly and quite normally," stressed Habeck, "but we just can't get them over the political finish line, because then we keep looking at what the media echo chamber is like, what's going on my next party conference, where are the next state elections.”

Now the governing coalition must "focus on ourselves again and make it clear to us again what a privilege it is to be in this government, to make it clear that climate protection is also a task for society as a whole".

In recent weeks there have been numerous discussions between the SPD, Greens and FDP, from the expansion of the motorway to a ban on new oil and gas heating systems to the upcoming budget for 2024. A coalition committee is scheduled for Sunday.