Relief Package: Green Party Spokesperson Janecek Questions Fuel Discount

While Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) continues to speak out against a speed limit and also vote against abstaining from meat, calling both "ideological debates," the Green Party's economic policy spokesman in the Bundestag Dieter Janecek has called for the removal of the fuel price cap that was decided on at the insistence of the FDP. Lindner said that people had already changed their behavior in the current crisis, their driving habits, and their consumption. However, previous statistics from telematics providers such as TomTom or Inrix do not support this statement; a decrease in traffic volume is not observable.

Green Party spokesperson Janecek generally questioned the tax cuts for gasoline and diesel. These foresee a tax reduction of 30 cents on gasoline and 14 cents on diesel. However, an exact start date is still pending, as is the case for the 300-euro energy allowance and the nine-euro ticket.

"We are currently seeing prices at gas stations of under two euros per liter. Why should we subsidize gasoline and diesel at this level," asked the economic politician in the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung.

In his opinion, it is to be expected that prices would continue to fall in light of the release of US oil reserves and the corona lockdowns in China. He sees further reduction in fuel costs as counterproductive. Instead, the planned funds should be used to relieve heating costs rather than the fuel rebate.

On the topic of speed limits, Green Party co-chair Ricarda Lang also spoke out in favor of immediate implementation to reduce dependence on Russian oil. "We must do everything we can to get out of this as quickly as possible," Lang explained to the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland. This would only work by diversifying and reducing energy consumption as quickly as possible.

"Because there are hardly any measures that work quickly, we now need a temporary speed limit on highways - for example, for nine months and thus until the end of the year, which is the time when we want to be independent of Russian oil at the latest," Lang advocated.

FDP General Secretary Bijan Dijir-Sarai then accused Lang of "party-political ideology" and exploiting the war to push through her own symbolic issues. Previously, Green Party Economics Minister Robert Habeck had also hinted that he personally had always supported a speed limit of 130 and saw this "rather confirmed" in recent days.