Wissing's amazing victory against climate protection

It's a day on which Volker Wissing is meticulous about not appearing too triumphant. The transport minister from the FDP does not want to upset his coalition partners from the Greens any further. He doesn't even think about who has now prevailed more in the days-long negotiations of the coalition committee. "I would like these decisions to help settle the debate," Wissing said the day after.

He doesn't just mean the sometimes heated discussions within the government. For Wissing, the decisions are about an even greater good: the decisions of the coalition committee should contribute to pacifying the entire population. "I see an increasing level of aggression in society," says Wissing. And that should now be mitigated, of all things, by Wissing not only being allowed to expand motorways more quickly, but also by softening the climate protection law.

It is probably no coincidence that on Wednesday of all days Wissing spoke about the deepening social divide in the climate debate. In the morning, the "taz" published a tasteless caricature of the transport minister as a likeness of Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister in the Third Reich. In addition the saying: "We are the very last generation: We stick to every motorway".

In fact, Wissing has succeeded in not only accelerating the construction of rails and wind turbines, but also in giving priority to certain motorway expansion projects. There are a total of 144 projects for which the so-called "overriding public interest" is to be determined, which should mean that planning will no longer drag on for so long, especially because lawsuits against the projects have fewer chances of success.

In green government circles, efforts are being made to downplay this decision, since it is only about eight to ten kilometers of motorway that are to be expanded or newly built. But firstly, that is almost 1000 kilometers of road and corresponds to around 7.5 percent of the existing network, and secondly, this decision on the motorway naturally has a great symbolic effect: not everything is subordinated to climate protection, it should be weighed up more in the future.

For Wissing, this also results from the most important decision of the coalition committee: the climate protection law should be softened. So far, every sector such as transport, buildings or industry has had to meet its own climate targets. If the departments do not meet their targets for CO₂ reduction, the responsible ministries actually have to present an immediate climate protection program. Wissing's plan on how to reduce emissions in the transport sector so that the targets can be achieved has been overdue for months.

But now the traffic light government has decided that the goals of the individual sectors will no longer be so precise in the future. It is true that the CO₂ specifications must also be met in the future in the overall balance of all areas. But only if it becomes apparent two years in a row that the targets for 2030 will be missed will all ministers responsible for one of the sectors propose further measures to reduce CO₂ emissions.

However, responsibility is no longer borne solely by the transport minister if the transport goals are not achieved. In any case, it is "much more difficult" to meet the goals in traffic, after all, "affordable, deliverable, climate-neutral vehicles are needed," says Wissing. "The delivery times for this are long, we don't produce any cars ourselves."

For Wissing, it is this regulation that should ensure pacification of the population. It cannot be that he gets into a situation in which "only measures that have no social acceptance are possible," he says. Then something has to be done in another area “that is more socially acceptable”.

But here, too, the next dispute should already be programmed. After all, the Greens and FDP have very different ideas about what the population can expect in the name of climate protection. For Wissing, for example, a general speed limit belongs on the list of unreasonable measures, the Greens have long been calling for a speed limit on motorways that applies everywhere.

"We have to keep rethinking the distribution of burdens in society," says Wissing. There is a "high sensitivity" in the population, which can also be seen in the discussion about a ban on gas and oil heating from next year. The motto at the end of the heating chapter in the coalition committee, "No one will be left in the lurch," can also be applied to transport, according to Wissing: "No one will be left in the lurch with their mobility needs." not for every price.

It should not be the only point of contention in the future. The expansion of the motorway is by no means as certain as the decisions of the coalition committee make it sound. Because the affected countries would also have to go along with it. And in many places the Greens are also involved in the respective state governments.

Wissing emphasizes that he assumes that there will be "broad approval" from the federal states. But in North Rhine-Westphalia of all places, where most of the 144 expansion projects are located, the Green Minister of Transport there has already expressed his opposition to individual projects. "Not eliminating bottlenecks means traffic jams," says Wissing. "Then he has to be held accountable politically."

None of this sounds like social pacification. After all: The "taz" deleted her caricature after a lot of criticism and apologized. "Everyone has to ask themselves to what extent they are contributing to the radicalization of society," Wissing said when asked about the caricature. Wissing had previously responded to the disparagement on Twitter.

The Minister of Transport tweeted a Bible quote in Hebrew in response: Mene Mene Tekel u-parsin. It is translated as: "God has numbered the days of your reign and is bringing it to an end. You were weighed and found wanting.”

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