Scholz confident Germany can weather energy crisis in winter

Aug 11, 2022, 2:07 AM | Updated: 6:59 am

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged his government won’t leave citizens freezing or unable to pay their energy bills but acknowledged Thursday that his country faces considerable challenges in the coming months.

Rising fuel costs sparked by Russia’s war against Ukraine have put severe financial strain on many in Germany and beyond, raising concerns about a possible winter of discontent.

“We will do everything to help citizens get through this difficult time,” Scholz told reporters during his annual summer news conference in Berlin.

He cited numerous measures the government already adopted to ease financial hardships for residents and to secure alternative energy supplies to replace Russian oil, coal and gas.

Asked whether he feared that frustration could boil over into violent protests, Scholz replied, “I don’t believe that there will be unrest … in this country.” He cited Germany’s strong tradition of social welfare.

But the chancellor acknowledged there would be “many demands” during the winter as the country tries to reconcile energy shortages with long-standing plans to phase out nuclear power and fossil fuel use.

The German government has given utility companies a green light to reactivate shuttered oil and coal power plants as part of efforts to reduce the nation’s dependence on Russian natural gas.

Scholz said the government is also considering extending the lifetime of the country’s three remaining nuclear plants beyond the end of the year, even as it takes steps to massively ramp up the generation of renewable energy in the short- and medium term.

“The most important thing we can do to achieve (energy) sovereignty in the future and simultaneously do what’s necessary for our economic future is to expand renewable energy and protect the climate,” he said.

Scholz appeared to acknowledge that Germany’s past reliance on Russian energy – long criticized by allies such as the United States – had been a mistake, and that the country should have diversified its supplies sooner.

He declined to say whether he personally regretted Germany’s continued purchase of Russian gas and whether it gave Berlin a heightened responsibility to support Ukraine in defending itself against Russia’s military assault.

Scholz also remained tight-lipped when asked about the role he played in a large-scale tax evasion scam when he was mayor of Hamburg.

Questions about meetings he had with private bank M.M. Warburg in 2016 and 2017 have dogged Scholz. Hamburg officials later dropped demands for the bank to repay millions of euros in tax refunds it had wrongly claimed for share trades.

Dozens of bankers are being investigated in connection with so-called cum-ex share transactions that are said to have cost the German state billions.

Scholz has previously denied wrongdoing and claimed not to recall details of his meetings with Warburg officials.

Thorsten Frei, a leading lawmaker with Germany’s center-right Christian Democratic Union, said recent revelations about 200,000 euros in cash being found in a safe belonging to a close Social Democratic Party associate of Scholz raised further questions about the cum-ex affair.

“Olaf Scholz needs to explain himself,” Frei said in an interview published Thursday by German media group RND.

Asked about the issue repeatedly on Thursday, Scholz said he had not spoken to party associate Johannes Kahrs and didn’t know about the provenance of the money.

“I’m as curious as you are,” he said.

___

Kirsten Grieshaber contributed to this report.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz addresses the media during his first annual summer news conference in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
            
              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attends his first annual summer news conference in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
            
              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz addresses the media during his first annual summer news conference in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
            
              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attends his first annual summer news conference in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
            
              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz addresses the media during his first annual summer news conference in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
            
              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz addresses the media during his first annual summer news conference in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
            
              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attends his first annual summer news conference in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
            
              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attends his first annual summer news conference in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. Word in the background reads 'Federal Press Conference'. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
            
              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz addresses the media during his first annual summer news conference in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
            
              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attends his first annual summer news conference in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
            
              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz addresses the media during his first annual summer news conference in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
            
              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz addresses the media during his first annual summer news conference in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
            
              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attends his first annual summer news conference in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
            
              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attends his first annual summer news conference in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. Word in the background reads 'Federal Press Conference'. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
            
              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attends his first annual summer news conference in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
            
              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz addresses the media during his first annual summer news conference in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
            
              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz addresses the media during his first annual summer news conference in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
            
              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz addresses the media during his first annual summer news conference in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
            
              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attends his first annual summer news conference in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
            
              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attends his first annual summer news conference in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. Word in the background reads 'Federal Press Conference'. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
            
              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attends his first annual summer news conference in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
            
              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz addresses the media during his first annual summer news conference in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
            
              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attends his first annual summer news conference in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
            
              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrives for the weekly cabinet meeting at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
            
              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attends the weekly cabinet meeting at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
            
              German Chancellor Olaf Scholz arrives for the weekly cabinet meeting at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

AP

FILE - U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz listens during a news conference, Jan. 5, 2023, in Washi...

Associated Press

US Border Patrol chief is retiring after seeing through end of Title 42 immigration restrictions

The head of the U.S. Border Patrol announced Tuesday that he was retiring, after seeing through a major policy shift that seeks to clamp down on illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border following the end of Title 42 pandemic restrictions.

1 day ago

FILE - President Joe Biden talks with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Calif., on the House steps as...

Associated Press

House OKs debt ceiling bill to avoid default, sends Biden-McCarthy deal to Senate

The House approved a debt ceiling and budget cuts package late Wednesday, as President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy assembled a bipartisan coalition of centrist Democrats and Republicans against fierce conservative blowback and progressive dissent.

1 day ago

Sean Bickings (Family Photo via city of Tempe)...

Associated Press

Family of man who drowned last year in Tempe Town Lake files wrongful death lawsuit

The family of a man who drowned in Tempe Town Lake a year ago filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city Wednesday, noting that its police department doesn't have a policy requiring officers to go into the water to save someone.

1 day ago

(Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS...

Associated Press

Florida police search for 3 gunmen who wounded 9 at crowded beach on Memorial Day

Police are responding to a shooting near the beach broadwalk in Hollywood, Florida.

3 days ago

Crew members assemble the main stage ahead of the 2023 Scripps Nations Spelling Bee on Sunday, May ...

Associated Press

Exclusive secrets of the National Spelling Bee: Picking the words to identify a champion

As the final pre-competition meeting of the Scripps National Spelling Bee's word selection panel stretches into its seventh hour, the pronouncers no longer seem to care.

3 days ago

FILE - Gabby Petito's mother Nichole Schmidt, wipes a tear from her face during a news conference o...

Associated Press

Mother of man who killed Gabby Petito said in letter she would help son ‘dispose of a body’

The mother of the man who killed Gabby Petito told her son in an undated letter that she would “dispose of a body” if needed because she loved him so much, according to copies of the note shared publicly for the first time this week by attorneys for Petito's parents.

6 days ago

Sponsored Articles

...

SANDERSON FORD

Thank you to Al McCoy for 51 years as voice of the Phoenix Suns

Sanderson Ford wants to share its thanks to Al McCoy for the impact he made in the Valley for more than a half-decade.

(Photo: OCD & Anxiety Treatment Center)...

OCD & Anxiety Treatment Center

Here’s what you need to know about OCD and where to find help

It's fair to say that most people know what obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders generally are, but there's a lot more information than meets the eye about a mental health diagnosis that affects about one in every 100 adults in the United States.

...

Day & Night Air Conditioning, Heating and Plumbing

Company looking for oldest air conditioner and wants to reward homeowner with new one

Does your air conditioner make weird noises or a burning smell when it starts? If so, you may be due for an AC unit replacement.

Scholz confident Germany can weather energy crisis in winter