Friedrich Merz against green steel: SPD accuses him of destroying jobs

The place that Friedrich Merz chose for his confession is something special: the Bochum Jahrhunderthalle, in the heart of the Ruhr area. So here’s the Union Chancellor candidate saying on Monday: “I don’t believe in green steel.”

The SPD reacts to this with outrage. “Friedrich Merz is laying the ax on the steel industry in Germany,” said Anke Rehlinger, Prime Minister of Saarland star. Tens of thousands of jobs in your state also depend on the steel industry. The state wants to spend billions to make it CO2-free.

Rehlinger says: “Anyone who wants to turn back now will destroy billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs.” Friedrich Merz understands nothing about this key industry, criticizes the Social Democrat. Party leader Lars Klingbeil made similar comments to the star: “It is not important what Merz believes in. The steelworkers rely on commitments and support,” said Klingbeil.

Rolf Mützenich, the SPD parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag, is also outraged. “Friedrich Merz is a politician from yesterday,” Mützenich told the star. After the CDU boss wants to force the auto industry onto the path to combustion engines, he is now positioning himself against the future of the steel industry. “He mocks the companies that have invested billions in climate neutrality in order to remain competitive,” said the Social Democrat from North Rhine-Westphalia.

The Social Democrats are now demanding clarification from North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst, Friedrich Merz’s party friend. “Up to now I had also understood Hendrik Wüst to mean that this was the consensus,” said Klingbeil. Rehlinger said she hoped that Wüst would not let Merz’s statements stand.

Wüst’s black-green state government supports the conversion of Thyssenkrupp’s plants. This is a big step towards “reconciling climate protection and industry with its attractive jobs,” said Wüst in the summer of 2023.

More than 80,000 employees in Germany work directly for the steel industry. The industry in North Rhine-Westphalia alone has 25,000 employees. Recently, doubts about the energy-neutral conversion of the steelworks had also been raised by the industry itself. The plans are currently being reviewed by management.

“We are continually examining, in a technology- and open-ended manner, what the best and most economically viable solutions are,” it said a few weeks ago. The two billion euros in state funding for the renovation would not be enough. A stop cannot be ruled out.

Friedrich Merz justified his skepticism in Bochum in a similar way: “Where should the hydrogen come from? And the steel is still more expensive. Where should the money for it come from?” Merz agreed that he would take care of the issue. How? He didn’t say that that evening.

SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich admitted that it still takes a lot of strength and energy to write a success story for Green Steel. But anyone who runs away from the challenge and gives up, says the Social Democrat, “is making exactly the same mistake that has set Germany far behind economically.” Courage and innovation are required. “Friedrich Merz cannot give the country any confidence or courage because he continues to go into reverse gear.”

Merz apparently has in mind a complete change in technology. “We want to do CCS,” he said, which means continuing to use fossil natural gas for steel production, but capturing the CO2 from it. However, this technology does not yet exist on an industrial scale in Germany, nor has it been tested to a large extent here, especially since the greenhouse gas then has to be injected into the ground somewhere. The steelworkers had linked their future to green hydrogen from renewable energies. The state wanted to support Thyssenkrupp with 4.7 billion euros for this restructuring.