Reiner Haseloff from Saxony-Anhalt: “It’s an injustice”

How can climate protection progress in Germany without the citizens feeling left behind? A conversation with the Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt, Reiner Haseloff.

Reiner Haseloff wears two watches. A smartwatch on his right wrist that flashes whenever he gets electronic messages. And an analogue watch on the left wrist. Haseloff says he finds it impolite to be distracted by all the messages in a conversation, so his gaze is limited to his left wrist as he speaks.

He has been prime minister in Saxony-Anhalt since 2011, the longest-serving head of state government in Germany. He takes his time for the interview – because he wants to explain a few things from his point of view. A conversation about German economic policy, differences between West and East Germany and the question of why he is against an increase in broadcasting fees.

t-online: Mr Haseloff, how do you heat your home?

Reiner Haseloff: With gas. Still.

But will that change soon?

Yes. I live in a terraced house that was built according to GDR standards, so I’m still dependent on the old systems. But I ordered a heat pump a year ago.

Well, now I’m waiting. At the moment I still don’t know when my heat pump will be delivered. A Prime Minister is no different than many Germans at the moment.

The traffic light government in Berlin wants people to heat more sustainably – in the future oil and gas heating should be phased out.

So: It is correct that only 20 percent of our energy requirements in Germany are covered by electricity. And yes, much more energy has to be used to supply heat, around 40 percent of the total requirement. It is therefore fundamentally correct to change course among consumers. Nevertheless, the way the federal government is approaching the matter is unconvincing.

The plan for the heating transition was fraught with problems from the start. It also had to be constantly reworked. For many people, the associated burdens are almost impossible to cope with. In addition, media research gave the impression that – to put it mildly – ​​the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology was said to have been systematically lobbying the renewable energy sector.

You could still benefit from it: If fossil fuels are replaced by electricity for heating and mobility, the green electricity from your federal state will be in great demand.

The federal government should do more to improve the framework conditions and get people on board better. So signal that it is worthwhile to generate green electricity. People must be able to see that climate protection measures, that new laws and regulations, logically build on one another and interlock.

But do you think they don’t?

No. The corresponding legal framework would have to be set better for this. Instead, the following still applies: Whoever produces green energy in Germany is disadvantaged by the state. Anyone who generates green electricity automatically has a high electricity price.

We have around 3,000 wind turbines in Saxony-Anhalt and the number is constantly growing. This puts us in the top 3 per inhabitant for the generation of renewable energy. Each of these wind turbines has a decentralized feed point. This leads to high grid usage fees, which in turn affects the electricity price that we have to pay where the green electricity is fed into the grid.

The price could still go up. Because the last nuclear power plants have just gone offline.

Yes. And we deliver our surplus electricity to the south of Germany. That means in plain language: The earth is still being dug up here, there are huge asparagus everywhere.

You mean the wind turbines.

Yes, I sometimes jokingly call them that.

What are you asking of the federal government now?

That the grid usage fees, which make up a significant part of the electricity price, are divided up nationwide, as has been the case for years with the systems at sea.

What are you doing about it on the state side?