“Anne Will”: Yellow-green mud battle around the turnaround in traffic

The traffic light coalition is arguing about how traffic should become climate-friendly. One topic in particular is causing a heated argument between the FDP and the Greens – the expansion of motorways. Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) wants to speed up transport projects. The Greens step on the brakes. Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens) wants to prevent new motorways from being built and environmental protection falling by the wayside. An agreement is not in sight. A coalition committee couldn’t help either. So is the traffic turnaround stuck in traffic jams? The panel discussion at “Anne Will” discussed this question.

Guest at “Anne Will”:

For Ricarda Lang, one thing is certain: new autobahns will continue to fuel the climate crisis. The Green leader wants to set priorities: “If I prioritize everything, I prioritize nothing.” The FDP politician Christian Dürr has other goals. Again and again he explains that one must become faster with the expansion of the infrastructure. His party wants more speed – “unlike other parties”. With this, Dürr wants to indicate that it is the Greens who are currently slowing down the turnaround in traffic.

What is the solution for climate-friendly transport?

With the current transport policy, Germany will probably miss its climate targets for 2030, but the FDP wants to build more motorways. How is traffic supposed to become more climate-friendly? Christian Dürr believes that so-called “e-fuels” – synthetic fuels produced using electricity from renewable energies, water and CO2 – are the solution. Ricarda Lang can only shake her head. “We have to see how seriously we conduct the debate,” says the Green politician. She accuses the FDP of slowing down the turnaround in traffic by rejecting everything and instead using new technologies as an excuse, which are at most a small part of the solution.

How can the turnaround in traffic then succeed? Ricarda Lang calls for three measures: “Environmentally harmful subsidies” such as the company car privilege should be abolished. Instead, there should be a speed limit on motorways and massive investments in rail transport. For Christian Dürr from the FDP, that doesn’t sound like a good plan. CDU politician Thorsten Frei takes a similar view and accuses Lang of sounding “teaching”.

FDP and Greens – against each other instead of with each other

For the viewer it should be clear: FDP and Greens are far apart in transport policy. The fact that Ricarda Lang and Christian Dürr are now on the talk show and address each other by their first names does not change that. “Welt” journalist Robin Alexander summarizes: “There is no common plan to be seen.” It seems as if the Greens are against the car and the FDP for it. “Politicians put on a show that people don’t even have.”

With all the discussions between the FDP and the Greens, the question remains as to what the largest parliamentary group in the federal government has to say. In any case, the position of the SPD in this debate played no role in “Anne Will”. Hardly a word was said about the Chancellor either. It should be quite interesting if and when Olaf Scholz (SPD) speaks a word of power in the dispute over the traffic turnaround.